Isobel Colleran’s Wallpaper Award

An apprentice at Leeds College of Building has received a special prize after taking part in a national wallpapering contest.

Transcript

00:00I'm Isabel Colloran. I work for FSH Group, studying at Leeds College of Building.

00:04I'm an apprentice painter and decorator. I wanted to do something hands-on but I

00:08didn't know what. Painting and decorating weren't in the, it weren't in my plan

00:12originally at all. Didn't think I'd be here. I took to it and I thought trade

00:17will be the way to go, it's hands-on, I can learn something. We'd gone to

00:20Doncaster College for the competition. We had a scope to follow of what papers

00:26were going on, which wall and what measurements it had to be. It was our

00:30wallpaper of the year competition. There's always been an apprentice or I've

00:33always felt has achieved a great deal at the competition in their application,

00:38their attitude, their professionalism, but when it comes to the actual marking it

00:42could only be maybe a one-point difference between that person actually

00:47being the winner or not and that was the reason why I created the Chief

00:51Executives Recognition Achievement Award. Although I didn't place, it were

00:56still lovely that I got the recognition for, you know, because I put a lot of work

01:00into it and my application I knew was spot-on so I'm really glad that you

01:06although I didn't place this year, next year is always a chance for me to to

01:12have another go at it and hopefully get first or second, hopefully first. Over the

01:16years the competitions have grown and grown and these apprentices seem to

01:20really want the challenge to add to their portfolio of actually taking part

01:24especially in the Trade Association competition and actually expand what they're doing

01:29with the hands and achieve some really really superb work. I was a young

01:33apprentice many many years ago, spent all my working life in the trade so to

01:37actually be a decorator and achieving that piece of workmanship that you can

01:41see when you leave the job I think is a real absolute credit to the actual

01:45profession. Obviously it's a lot of responsibility being in someone else's

01:49home, you've got to look after it, make sure you know you treat it with care so

01:52it's nice, it's nice to see a turnaround, it's nice to see happy people and you

01:57know and meeting new people as well.