Over 200 people gathered at Bathurst’s Flannery Centre on Friday for the annual Skillset Awards ceremony, which recognises the best apprentices, trainees, students and organisations in the Central West.

Harrison Pirie and Matthew Harvey both walked away with gongs, with the latter taking out the overall title of Gordon Hawkes Apprentice of the Year for 2018.

Mr Harvey began as a mature-aged apprentice at PJL Group – where he is now leading hand – and has since completed his engineering-fabrication apprenticeship.

Friday night marked the second accolade bestowed upon Mr Harvey this year after he was named Apprentice of the Year at the Western NSW Training Awards.

Mr Pirie, meanwhile, was honoured with the Skills4Trade Student of the Year Award for multi-industry courses.

Described as “a motivated, reliable, confident and efficient worker”, Mr Pirie enrolled in the Skills4Trade program before taking on his apprenticeship.

Orange’s other winner on the night was bricklaying business DR and DV Cooper, which was acknowledged with the Workforce Host Excellence Award.

In a 20-year association with Skillset, owner Dave Cooper has employed 11 apprentices.

There were plenty of other Orange names among the evening’s finalists.

Samantha Kennedy, who is completing  an apprenticeship as a chef at Highland Heritage Estate, was in the running for the Apprentice of Trainee in Non-Traditional Trade Award.

Housing Plus’s Breanna Reimer was named as a finalist in the Joyce Hawkes Trainee of the Year category, while Brock Piper (Western NSW Health) and Joseph Duffy (PJL Group) were finalists for the award won by Mr Harvey.​