Kilkenny graduate crowned world champion at Worldskills Competition

Luke O’Keeffe from Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny is the world champion in Digital Construction after winning gold in the ‘Olympics of skills’ at the recent Worldskills Competition 2022 Special Edition.

Luke graduated from South East Technological University’s BSc (Hons) in Architectural and BIM Technology programme in 2020 and is currently a project manager with Gagamuller Group and is studying an MSc in Construction Project Management at SETU.

The Digital Construction competition which involved 13 countries, was run in Bordeaux along with five other Worldskills competitions and as part of the Worldskills France regional competition which saw approximately 50,000 visitors to the Parc-des-Expositions.

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Following the cancellation of Worldskills Shanghai 2022 due to the covid epidemic, 15 countries and regions across the world hosted events to ensure that 62 skill competitions with 1000 competitors from 56 countries would still take place. From this, Worldskills Competition 2022 Special Edition was delivered over four months to huge success.

Gordon Chisholm said, “Luke has demonstrated his skills consistently over the years winning Futureskills 2019, becoming Irish National Champion in 2021 and being crowned the Worldskills Champion in 2022.

“The Digital Construction skill area has developed over these short years, testing the competitors in the use of digital tools to design, deliver and manage the construction process.

“This methodology has developed new roles such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) Coordinators and BIM Managers who are highly sought after as the technology has rapidly become the mainstay across the construction industry”.

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Worldskills Ireland aims to promote vocational, technological and service oriented education and training. In recent years, new digital professional skills have been added to the portfolio and the organisation goes from strength to strength. It is a partnership between enterprise, industry, education, training and government that raises the profile and recognition of skills and apprenticeships and prepares the talent of today for the careers of the future.