Sixty students including 42 from Port Macquarie put their skills to the test on December 11 during one of more than 500 regional qualifiers across Australia.

The regional qualifiers are held every two years and allow students to compete at a national level in Australia's largest vocational education competition to be held in Perth during August 2020.

"Competitions such as these help build GRIT. That is the College's acronym for guts, resilience, initiative and team," according to Newman College VET Curriculum and Workplace Learning leader Karen Warneken.

"Not to mention, confidence, commitment and self-esteem."

Categories for the regional competition included information technology, commercial cookery, food and beverage handing, tourism, business services, metal and engineering, brick laying, construction, electro-technology and automotive skills.

"WorldSkills competitions also help to validate or benchmark the training provided with independent judges from industry and external VET Training providers crossing over campuses to measure each competitor fairly," said Newman College Leader of Learning Tom Moriarty.

"This helps develop the knowledge and training for all participants not just the students."

Gold medal winners were Gabrielle Foster, Kayla Chapman and Meriki Moran.

World Skills medal winners from Newman College included Gabrielle Foster, Emily Rourke, Kegan Wadwell, Tim Myhill, Matthew Nosworthy, Jarrod Olsen, Angus Patterson, Shay Craddock, Kaitlyn Richards, Madeline Young, Ryan Melbourne, Kayla Chapman, Zachary Stevenson, Christopher Sakayan, Jack Tougher-Wells, George McKeon, Ryan Bollard, Cameron Brown, Meriki Moran, Lara Hickey, Damian Tierney and Matthew Bone.

Medal winner Kaitlyn Richards, who excelled at the food and beverage category said these kinds of competitions reinforce the idea that hard work pays off.

"With good training, practice and a passion for your trade area, you can go into the competition with confidence," she said.

"It also helps you appreciate the achievements of the gold medal winners."

While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox from the Port Macquarie News. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, SIGN UP HERE.