Curious, skilled, ambitious: four young colleagues and their future...

In our recent KAEFER Stories, we honoured David's 45 years in the trade in the UK. Now we turn to France, where Adrien, Laurence, Mathis and Miguel offer a different perspective: what it feels like to build skills, try something new and imagine where a career in the trade could take you.

A broken-down car is not the ideal start to a big day. But Laurence Glinel made it to Pompignac all the same.

She was there to take part in a challenge that would ask her to do something unfamiliar: put her insulation skills to the test. Laurence, from KAEFER's Nuclear West unit, has been working at KAEFER as a scaffolder for around three years. Insulation is a different world - one she is curious about but has had limited opportunity to practise on site.

Her route is not the same as those of the other three participants. That is part of what makes this group interesting.

Miguel Castello, from Normandy Industry, has three years of experience in insulation, after completing a year of training to qualify. Adrien Branco, from Nuclear North East Centre, has been in the trade for four years. Mathis Boudier, from the Petit-Couronne workshop, trained as a metal fabricator and works in a prefabrication workshop; installing insulation on site is new territory.

Four people, then, with different starting points and different things to discover.

Learning by doing

Before the "Concours Calo" the participants spent two weeks preparing with KAEFER's internal insulation training academy. For Laurence, that support made taking part possible. "I wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise," she says.

Preparation helps, but it cannot make every challenge predictable. Mathis found that the installation work tested him most. It was not what he is used to doing in the workshop, and the tools were different from the ones he knew. He still came away with a better understanding of the trade and a healthy respect for the skill involved. He says he feels more comfortable in the workshop but has already learned a lot from the experience.

Adrien brings more experience in insulation than Mathis or Laurence, but the competition still gave him the chance to discover new aspects of the trade. For him, it was a practical way to keep learning and to build on the skills he had been developing over four years.

Laurence faced her own test: shaping mouldings. When she realised she was getting stuck, she made a practical decision: move on, complete the insulation work, and return to the sheet metal if time allowed.

It was a small moment, but a telling one. Sometimes progress means persisting. Sometimes it means knowing when to change tack.

Passing the trade on

Recently, KAEFER Stories featured David Eggleston, who has spent 45 years in the trade. His story is a reminder of the depth of experience built over a working life and the expertise that keeps a specialist craft strong.

The four young colleagues who took part in Pompignac are at a different stage. They are finding their feet, testing their skills and discovering where their experience might take them next. The link between the generations is not automatic: skills have to be taught, practised and passed on. Training, mentoring and opportunities to try something new can help make that handover real.

For Laurence, the experience also points to a wider question: how can people get the chance to discover insulation earlier in their working lives? She says she might have trained in the trade if that route had been available to her.

That matters because the future of a skilled trade depends on more than competitions. It depends on making the work visible, offering real opportunities to learn, and helping people move between skills and roles. A challenge can open a door; training and experience are what make it possible to walk through.

What the experience leaves behind

The competition took place in Pompignac on 21 and 22 October 2026. Miguel and Adrien finished in the top two places and will go on to represent KAEFER France in the national competition organised by the SNI*. Laurence received third place and the Environmental Award; Mathis finished fourth.

Those results mark the end of the event, but not the end of the story. Mathis is already joking about getting his "revenge" in two years, though he is quick to add that someone else should have a chance, too.

For these four young colleagues, two days in Pompignac offered more than a ranking. They tested what they knew, found out what they still want to learn, and got a glimpse of what the future might hold: in the workshop, on site, or somewhere in between.

*National insulation association