To be given a van in return for winning a game of buzz seems almost too good to be true, however for 3 of Trade Skills 4 U students, the van was all for the taking in one fun filled afternoon.
How Trade Skills 4 U celebrated their birthday
In April Crawley based electrical training company Trade Skills 4U launched a competition to win a brand new Vauxhall Combo Van worth nearly £17,000. Why you may ask? Well it was their 10th Birthday and CEO Carl Bennett wanted to celebrate in style and give something back to his customers.
So over the last 2 months there have been lots entries into the competition entrants had a 3/800 chance of being drawn to compete in the final, which was pretty good odds. On Monday 1st June, 3 entrants were drawn at random and invited to compete in the Grand final. The 3 finalists were Gary Middleton from Brighton, Robert Beach-Dunne from Seaford and Jeff Case who travelled all the way down from Manchester.
The lucky finalists
This week the 3 lucky finalists had to battle it out at a game of giant buzz wire to win the van. The competition was very tense. All three finalists had never met before they competed and the general assumption was whoever got to the end would win. However when the competition began it became clear that with the pressure of the final maybe this was a harder proposition than first thought. Jeff Case went first but only just made it to the first bend, he thought he had blown it however the second contestant Robert Beach-Dunne buzzed almost straight away meaning it came down to the last finalist Gary Middleton to try to claim the prize. He swiftly went passed the first bend and carried on to buzz on the second bend. The audience at this point knew he had won but everyone kept tight lipped. All 3 finalists were brought back into the room where Gary was announced as the winner and presented with a bottle of Champagne.
“I really can not believe it. I buzzed really early on so was convinced I had blown it. I have never won anything before so this is a complete shock. This means a huge deal to me and my family and makes it just that bit easier as I look to change my career.” Gary said.
The lucky winner drove their new van away that afternoon
Gary Middleton booked his course on April 7th via the Trade Skills 4U website, he received two entries into the competition for booking in April. Gary who currently works in ASDA on the Seafront in Brighton Marina has a young family who will hugely benefit from this extremely generous prize, he is studying the silver domestic installer course with us at the beginning of July, once he has completed the course the he has said the van will assist him starting his own business as an electrician.
On the day Trade Skills 4U were able to walk over the road to Go Vauxhall and register the van in Gary’s name straight away. Luckily he had brought a friend with him so he was able to drive off with his prize there and then. The two runners up were also awarded brand new Kewtech KT63’s for their efforts.
CEO Carl Bennett Said “I never expected Trade Skills 4U to achieve what we have in just 10 years. We are now the UK’s no.1 electrical training company and I put our success down to 2 key reasons. A fantastic team and fantastic location too. We have put in a lot of hard graft over the years and it is very fulfilling to see it working. We intend to expand to even more locations across the UK in coming months so watch this space for more info.”
About the Prize
As a brand new van all the servicing will be taken care of by Vauxhall for 3 years. The van was supplied by Trade Skills 4U neighbours Go Vauxhall who are based literally over the road from their head office.
Gary won a brand new Vauxhall Combo Van worth nearly £17,000. The Vauxhall Combo has won light van of the year two years running and like Trade Skills 4U is a leader in its field. The 1.3 Diesel engine makes it super-efficient but with plenty of power to get you and your tools from A to B.
Compact, spacious and easy to load, the Combo can carry a class-leading payload of up to one tonne and a capacity of up to 3.4m3. It has both rear and side door access with a fantastic interior that will make you feel as if you’re driving a new car.
Gary simply had to insure it and drive away.