Northern Regional College (NRC) in partnership with CITB-ConstructionSkills NI are to host Northern Ireland's construction apprentices and trainees as they compete in the Skillbuild NI 2013 National Finals at NRC's Newtownabbey Campus in March.

Welcoming the news NRC Principal and Chief Executive Trevor Neilands said: "We are delighted to host this important event in the construction calendar. It’s a great opportunity for our talented young students to demonstrate their skills and their ability to perform at the highest level. The Newtownabbey campus offers the most up to date construction facilities completed recently as part of a £10 million new build project. We look forward to welcoming all students to two days of intense competition when all the hard work and training with their lecturers will come to fruition."

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Also speaking at the event were Neal Houston former NRC student and SkillBuild competitor and now construction lecturer at NRC, Dr Raymond Whiteford, from the Skillbuild Advisory Group and Ronnie Laverty Head of Faculty for Building, Engineering and Science at NRC.

Intercampus competitions have taken place across all five regional colleges and over 100 finalists have been selected to compete in two days of competitions on March 20 and March 21 at NRC's Newtownabbey campus. Under the spotlight will be 12 construction craft areas including brickwork, floor and wall tiling, carpentry and joinery and electrical installation. The best will be selected to go forward to compete at National and Worldskills level.

The SkillBuildNI Finals produce many inspirational stories of student achievement. Last year NRC student Aidan Glass, went on to win silver in the bricklaying category at the UK National Skills competition and is currently part of the UK squad preparing to compete at Worldskills Leipzig in July 2013. Aidan is employed by Cloane Contracts and attends Northern Regional College, Ballymoney.

This year NRC has 18 students from six campuses in training for the NI finals including three from Newtownabbey. Lecturers have worked closely with students throughout the intercampus competitions and are now developing training programmes to prepare the 18 finalists for the two days of competition.