Hundreds of apprentices and students gathered at Barking and Dagenham College for a host of competitions this week.
The college, which trains more than 700 apprentices, hosted the annual event to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week.
Employers such as Pimlico Plumbers sponsored the competitions and acted as judges.
The grandson of Pimlico Plumbers founder and CEO Charlie Mullins, Ashley Mullins, judged the plumbing competitions explained why his company feels it’s so important to support National Apprenticeship Week.
“As soon as you have a trade under your belt, you are going to have work for life. We get over 200 applicants a week to do an apprenticeship with us and we really wish we could take them all on.”
Despite being the boss’ grandson, Ashley also started out as an apprentice.
“I left school at 16 to study plumbing at college, then became an apprentice and here I am now.” he explained.
“Several of our current apprentices study at Barking & Dagenham College, it’s an amazing college.
“I’ve been really impressed by the apprentices I’ve seen today, they’ve been asking lots of questions, which is a good thing.”
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