Welcome

This Site is all about the progress and success of the IT Office Team for the United Kingdom at Euroskills 2008.

This team consists of 4 members, each with their specific strengths.

Michael West (Microsoft Specialist)

Keith Kelly (Cisco Specialist)

Hugo Landau (Open Source Specialist)

And finally Toby Henness (Project Manager)

As well as competitors there is the training manger John O’Neill assisted by Kevin Large each with their specific knowledge base to help aid the competitors.

Blogs about each competitor and training manager will follow in a few weeks as well as their experiences in the training and competitions.

All the Best

TH

Sunday, 30 March 2008

Toby Henness


Toby Henness is the Project Manager for the Office IT team and his role is to ensure the team functions as smoothly as possible, manages all office procedures and keeps the team running within the time scales specified. He is already trained in Cisco and Microsoft and is certified in Linux.


Currently he is studying the CompTIA Project Management course, as well as studying towards a Foundation Degree in Mobile Telecommunications.


Toby is currently employed at Barnfield College in Luton where he teaches Linux, as well as being a Cisco Technician for the Open University and is Shop Manager for Yellowstone Electronic Solutions.


Toby’s participation with World Skills UK dates back to June 2006 when he entered a Hardware and Software Competition. He went on to win Barnfield Colleges first medal, Silver, and since then has won an additional medal. Thanks to Barnfield, Cisco and World Skills UK he was able to visit Japan to witness World Skills in November 2007.

Sunday, 23 March 2008

Warren Fox


Warren Fox is the Microsoft Specialist for the EuroSkills 2008 Office IT Team. He is responsible for the set-up of Microsoft server’s DNS, DHCP and Active Directory for the competition.

Currently on his 1st Year of the BTEC diploma at Barnfield College, he is also studying the Cisco CCNA, CompTIA Computer Hardware and Maintenance as well as the Microsoft certification.

Warren previously competed at the UKSKILLS Computer Hardware competition achieving 1st place in 2007. He now looks forward to hopefully competing internationally for United Kingdom at Euroskills this September.

Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Keith Kelly

Keith Kelly is the Cisco Specialist for the EuroSkills 2008 Office IT Team. He is responsible for the set-up of the network and configuration of the Cisco Equipment for the competition.


Currently on his Second Year of the Foundation Degree at the University of Bedfordshire, learning about Mobile Telecommunications, Security, Building Scalable Internetworks and Project Management .


Keith Brings an enthusiasm for excellence as well as a comprehensive knowledge of Cisco equipment. Though he hasn’t done any previous competitions his commitment to the team in unquestionable.

Tuesday, 4 March 2008

Kevin Large



Kevin’s role could best be described as the team’s technical instructor and technologies coordinator; it will be his responsibility to train the team members in specific technologies and to develop scenario’s that will promote lateral thinking, great troubleshooting skills and most importantly team bonding.


Kevin is currently employed at Barnfield College in Luton where he teaches Linux, Cisco CCNA/CCNP and Network Security on the Foundation Degree programmes and the Cisco CCNA for the Open University.




Kevin’s involvement with UK Skills dates back to 2006 when he trained the first Barnfield College student to enter a competition, the student Toby Henness (project manager in the EuroSkills 2008 team) went on to win the first of his two medals.



Since that time Kevin has trained two more students both currently members of the 2008 team, Hugo Landau and Warren Fox, both of whom were national Gold medal winners in 2007 on their first attempts at competitions.

Saturday, 1 March 2008

John O'Neill

John is the Training Manager for the EuroSkills 2008 UK team. He has 28 years of Voice and Datacoms experience gained with companies such as BT and a number of smaller specialised companies in the sector. John also has many years of Project Management and Microsoft experience so he is well placed to lead the teams training.

John is currently employed at Barnfield College in Luton where he manages the Full Time Foundation Degrees in “Computer Hardware and Networking” and “Modern Telecoms”.

As Training Manager for the EuroSkills 2008 UK team John will manage all aspects of the teams training, from creating individual training plans through to delivering technical training in the areas of Cisco, VoIP, Microsoft and Project Management.