A TEAM of Year Nine girls from Sidmouth College have won a Girls’ Construction Skills Challenge run in Exeter.

A TEAM of Year Nine girls from Sidmouth College have won a Girls’ Construction Skills Challenge run in Exeter.

Organised by PGL, specialist providers of comprehensive training for the construction industry, the event was designed to encourage more girls to consider careers in the field.

Eight Sidmouth students competed and one of its two teams, with LuzE Vega, Lauren French, Simone Burchell and Matilda Reynolds winning the event and a shield.

LuzE Vega won the award for the best individual performance and a �15 iTunes voucher.

The college’s second team included Sammi Field, Katie Tweedy, Chloe Ratcliff and Lucy Coles and came third.

Matilda reports: “LuzE Vega, Lauren French, Simone Burchell and I set off to become plumbers, electricians and carpenters for the day. “We entered three workshops that consisted of building, creating and fixing different stations. We were going against two other schools, Cullompton and ISCA.

“In Electrics, we each had a station filled with wires, a switch, pliers, wire cutters, screws and much more.

“We had to fit the first wire under a slot and cut it through the centre, then pull the blue and red wires out and cut the copper.

“We had to do this to every single joint for the wires to then connect to the switch, complete the circuit and turn the light bulb on.”

She said the carpentry challenge was also fun.

“In plumbing, we had to cut copper and plastic pipes and then connect them to each other using inserts and caps in a square.

“Some of the equipment we used was potentially dangerous, but we had supervisors on hand to make sure we were safe.”