ETCI presented its Annual Apprentice Awards during its Annual Dinner held at the Davenport Hotel on 11th December last. The recipients were Daniel Ryall in Commercial Wiring and Barry Bolger in Industrial Wiring.
Both Daniel and Barry are also the winners of the National Apprentice/Skills Competition 2007 and have recently returned from Japan where they represented Ireland in the World Skills Competition. Both faired very well at this competition where Daniel Bolger was awarded a Bronze Medal and Barry Bolger was awarded a Medallion of Excellence
The concept of the Apprenticeship Awards Scheme was first introduced by ETCI to foster a greater awareness of electrical safety, to recognise the achievements of Ireland’s top electrical apprentices and to strengthen ETCI’s links with the electrotechnical education centres. The Award Scheme first came to fruition for the 1992-93 academic year with the help of the Department of Education when the first awards were made at the ELEX 94, the National Electrotechnical Exhibition. The main driving force behind this concept and the person who brought the concept into a reality is Liam Traynor; Liam is an Instructor with DIT and is also a long-time member of the ETCI Wiring Rules Committee, TC2.
The award to Daniel Ryall was presented by Kevin O’Reilly, Chief Executive & Chairman of Excel Electric Group. This prize was a FLUKE 1651 Multifunction Tester. Barry Bolger was unavailable to attend the Awards ceremony and was represented by his sister Margaret. On behalf of Barry, Margaret accepted the prize in the Electrical Industrial Category from Paul Sharkey, Managing Director, Instrument Technology. This prize was a MEGGER MFT1553 On-site Multifunction Tester with Bluetooth communications. In announcing the Awards winners, the ETCI Chairman, Ger Buckley thanked Kevin O’Reilly and Paul Sharkey for their continued support for the award scheme. He also thanked Liam Corcoran, Department of Education for his assistance in deciding this year’s winners. Liam is the National Co-ordinator of the National Apprentice/Skills Competition.
Photo 1 LR: From L->R, Ger Buckley, Chairman ETCI, Daniel Ryall, ETCI Apprentice Award Winner in the Electrical Commercial Installation Category, John McGuinness, T.D., Minister for Trade & Commerce at the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment and Kevin O’Reilly, Chief Executive & Chairman of Excel Electric Group.
Photo Ref 2 LR: From L->R, Ger Buckley, Chairman ETCI, Margaret Bolger (representing her brother, Barry - ETCI Apprentice Award Winner in the Electrical Industrial Installation Category), John McGuinness, T.D., Minister for Trade & Commerce at the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment and Paul Sharkey, Managing Director, Instrument Technology.
