Usman Rafiq, a student from Castle College, took park in the Eastern England regional heats of the Skillweld Competition which took place in Leeds in early February 2010.

Each competitor was required to complete four test pieces in four hours:

• MMA pipe weld
• Stainless steel overhead position fillet weld
• MIG / MAG vertical up position fillet weld
• Aluminium pipe to plate in horizontal vertical position.

Usman completed with one of the highest overall scores to date. He will continue onto the Regional Finals in May.

Other regional heats will take place and the ten apprentices with the highest marks will go through to the finals, which will take place in July at the NETA campus of Castle College Nottingham.