ON THE ROAD
Turn up the heat T
he Skills Show was full of young people from children through to young adults exploring the plethora of industries that the exhibition is comprised of and watching the competitions taking place over a wide ranging selection of those industries. The national fi nal of the acr industries own SkillFRIDGE competition was one such competition which was overseen by project manager and head judge Mark Forsyth. “The competition is going very well,” explained Mr Forsyth. “We’ve got six competitors from three diff erent colleges – Bath College, South East Regional College Lisburn and Glasgow Kelvin College. There are two competitors from each college who scored the highest out of fi fteen competitors in the regional heats. The competition involves three aspects:
■ Refrigeration – maintenenace and repair, including removing the refrigerant and
recharging and replacing a component, and an electrical fault fi nding task
■ Air conditioning – commissioning and effi cient operation, including a psychometric chart that needs to be plotted for the cooling process.
■ Pipework fabrication – including one of the new technologies and permanent mechanical joints.
“Instead of doing fl ame brazing which is what we tested in the regional heats, we opted for mechanical joints,” said Mr Forsyth, “and it’s an exciting change which we’ve all enjoyed.” It’s clear from the intensity of work going on at all six competitors’ stations that they are highly focused on their tasks, but how are they prepared for the competition?.
“They all study refrigeration and air conditioning at college,” explained Mr Forsyth. “What they don’t know is how to go about planning for competitions, so it’s something new that they have to face. At this stage we don’t give them any training or guidance other than a brief to explain what to expect in terms of the knowledge and skills requitred.
“What this means is that the colleges prepare them based on that combined with the college’s own experience of the competition. Some colleges do have more experience than others to start with and therefore prepare their competitors better in the fi rst instance, but after a college has been through it once, they get a lot out of it and realise how they can raise the standards in their teaching.
“For example, when the students are recovering refrigerant and connecting their
www.acr-news.com December 2016 21
The national fi nal of the SkillFRIDGE competition was held at the NEC in November. ACR News’ roving reporter Steve Bennion dropped by at the midway stage to catch up with the judges.
service gauges on to a system we look for the use of a vacuum pump to evacuate the lines. This avoids moisture contamination, protects the equipment and avoids any environmental damage. We can see that they may have been taught this and know the theory, but when they get out to the fi eld that side of it can slip, because it hasn’t been reinforced practically.”
WorldSkills silver medallist Chris Baillie.
Ian Lemmon from sponsor HRP.
Bike powered cooling.
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