AN APPRENTICE stonemason at York Minster has won the bronze medal at an international contest in Brazil.

Sam Turner was judged third in the world in the architectural stonemasonry category at the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world, WorldSkills 2015, held in Sao Paulo.

Over the four day competition, the 20-year-old York College student from Leeds worked for 22 hours to complete a piece of stonemasonry, including making the templates, working the stone and completing lettering and carving.

He was selected to represent Team UK having excelled in regional and national rounds of the UKSkills competition, after spending many hours training under the supervision of Kevin Calpin, a former York College stonemasonry tutor.

Kevin Clancy, head of division for construction at York College said: “We are so very proud of Sam’s achievements at the WorldSkills competition in Brazil. We have all been following his progress from the very start of his selection to the competition.

"He has worked tremendously hard in the stonemasonry workshops here at College and in his apprenticeship at York Minster and he thoroughly deserves this accolade. To be selected for WorldSkills is impressive enough and to then come home with a medal is absolutely outstanding.

"Everyone at York College is delighted for him, he is a fantastic role model for our students."