The five competitors who will compete in the 2013 SkillPIPE UK final have been named following two challenging semi-finals earlier this year.
All will now go head-to-head in a three-day practical task on 14-16 November at the Skills Show, the UK's largest skills and careers event. The event will take place at the NEC in Birmingham, where over 70 WorldSkills UK national competitions will be held across different occupations.

Contestants will have to cut, thread, weld and install pipework with temperature controls, commissioning valves and a circulating pump, all to a high standard and tight specification in the quest to be crowned SkillPIPE champion.

The finalists, listed with their employer and training provider details, are:

· Elliott Blakeley - T Clarke/Leeds College of Building/BEST
· James Moore - Shepherd Engineering Services/Leeds College of Building
· Robert Craw - FES Ltd/North Glasgow College
· Christopher Carmody - Whitehead Building Services Ltd/Cardiff & Vale College/BEST
· Ross Parkin - NG Bailey Engineering/Hartlepool College

SkillPIPE has the Building and Engineering Services Association (B&ES) as its premier sponsor and is organised by SummitSkills, the Sector Skills Council for building services engineering.

'Based on the standard witnessed in the heats we're expecting this to be the most competitive UK final we've seen so far,' said Neil Collishaw of SummitSkills. 'With the Skills Show this year hosting even more competitions over a larger area, the stage for SkillPIPE is really exciting and a once in a lifetime chance for the competitors to demonstrate their skills to a huge audience.'