Conor McKevitt has been recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours!
The IMI Skills Competitions set out to identify the most talented young Apprentices working in the Automotive Sector. Run annually, they are designed to raise standards, esteem and levels of expertise in technical skills across four streams of competition: Automotive Technology, Automotive Body Repair, Automotive Refinishing and Heavy Vehicle Technology. The finalists go on to compete on the world stage at The World Skills Competition.
Conor won the gold medal for Auto Refinishing in the IMI Skills competition finals in Birmingham in November 2017 and this led to him being selected for the WorldSkills UK team in Kazan 2019, where he went on to win the silver medal in the Car Painting Category.
Conor also won the “Best of Nation” award, as he was the highest scoring UK competitor out of all the skills being showcased!
We are so proud that Conor has now been recognised on the highest level – by being awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours!
Conor was trained at Riverpark Training, and coached by Richard Wheeler from Coleg Gwent as his WorldSkills Training Manager.
Conor now works at Glenn Allen Car Body Repairs in Northern Ireland. Interestingly, his manager, Gary Greer, is also a former WorldSkills contestant achieving a Medal of Excellence in WorldSkills Leipzig in 2013 in car painting and Andrew Gault, who won silver at Abu Dhabi for body repair in 2017, also works at the bodyshop.
Richard Hutchins, IMI Competition Manager, said, “We are extremely proud of Conor, he is a fantastic ambassador for the industry and has done so well. Winning a silver medal in car painting at WorldSkills Kazan 2019 is a fantastic achievement and now the Queens honours, hopefully Conor will inspire more to join the industry and enter the competitions.”
Conor said: “I was surprised and thrilled to hear I had been awarded a British Empire Medal, It is something very special. WorldSkills has really helped improve my skills and my career and I would like to thank everyone involved in my journey for their support.”
If you would like to find out more about The IMI Skills Competition and be in with a chance of competing then find our more here.