Winners of Simian Roofing Apprentice of the Year 2025 Announced

THE FIRST Apprentice of the Year competition to be hosted by SIMIAN and the North West Roof Training Group (NWRTG) has announced the winners.

Simian Apprentice of the Year 2025

Sponsored by IKO, the competition saw both pitched and flat roofing contests take place, where the apprentices had to complete roofing rigs while being scrutinised by judges.

The judges were looking out for technical skill, precision and understanding.

Led by SIMIAN’s Roofing Programme Lead, Luke O’Gorman, the apprentices demonstrated the knowledge and skills gained since they started their apprenticeship training in September 2024.

Pitched Roofing Winner

Winner of the pitched roofing competition was Mark Knight, apprentice at Greenough & Sons Roofing.

Mark Knight, winner of the Simian AOTY 2025 pitched roofing competition, pictured with his employer, John Greenough.

Judges commented that Mark showed thorough understanding of calculating measurements for battening the roof, was precise and careful in working with the tiles and delivered a clean and neat roofing rig.

Highly commended in the pitched roofing category were Lindon Clayton and Jordan Parr of The Roofing Company, as well as Daniel Knight of Greenough & Sons Roofing.

Flat Roofing Winner

In the flat roofing competition, the winner is Harry Crawford, apprentice at Protech Roofing.

Harry Crawford flat winner with his completed rig Simian AOTY25

Highly commended flat roofing apprentices were apprentices Alfie Hirst from Karl Austerfield Roofing, Michael Jump from Norman Shawcross Roofing, and Scott Finney from BBR Roofing Ltd.

The highly experienced industry experts judging the competition included, in the pitched competition:

• Christian Hynes, MD of C Hynes Roofing Services,
• John Gates of Swindells Roofing
• Dr Claire Griffiths, Editor at Roofing Today.

Judging the flat roofing competition were:

• Stephen Bithell, Contracts Director at Fulwood Roofing Services
• Adam Gotfraind of IKO
• Dave Randells from Simian.

National Apprenticeship Week

In honour of National Apprenticeship Week, we spoke to one of the competing apprentices, Jordan Parr, about his apprenticeship journey in the below video.

Jordan, 25, started his apprenticeship in September 2024 with The Roofing Company in Rochdale and loves the “variety and career opportunities that roofing offers”.

Jordan explained, “I was an apprentice labouring for a roofer and then it got to the point where I wanted to take it a step further and then ended up getting put on this course.

“I’m really enjoying it. It’s good learning new things – it’s great.”

>> Read more about apprenticeships in the news