Daniel Martins, a plumbing and heating apprentice at Briggs and Forester and trainee at EAS Mechanical, has placed fourth in the plumbing and heating category at Euroskills 2016 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Mr Martins travelled to Sweden with 18 other members of Team UK, young workers from a wide variety of backgrounds and industries ranging from hairdressing to architectural stonemasonry. Taking place over three days, EuroSkills tested the limits of 500 young workers from 28 countries across 35 different skill categories.

Mr Martins placed fourth, not high enough to earn a gold, silver or bronze medal but good enough to receive a Medal of Excellence for his efforts. Eamon Wilson, managing director at EAS Mechanical, said: “The work he had to carry out was extremely technical. All bends were assessed to the degree, there was a 2mm tolerance on clips and pipework, and absolutely no leaks permitted.

“If you asked for more pipe than you were given, or extra fittings then you would be deducted points. The work was to a seriously high standard and Mr Martins should be extremely proud of himself to have competed with 10 other Europeans in his division.”

Mr Martins now has the opportunity to travel to Abu Dhabi for WorldSkills 2017 with Team UK, if he can impress his coaches. Mr Wilson thinks he definitely has a shot after his performance in Gothenburg.

For more information about Mr Martins’ journey with skills competitions, check out our feature in HVP’s November/December 2016 issue.