Page 38 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine

WORLDSKILLS
NEXT GEN SKILLS
WorldSkills Australia’s flagship event provided an opportunity for young talent in the repair industry but what can they be doing to boost their international chances?
WORLDSKILLS AUSTRALIA HOSTED its flagship trade event, Skills Show Australia 2018 highlighting Australia’s best young talent
at the National Exhibition Centre in Sydney between June 2-4.
While it was good to see Axalta, APRA and Tradiebot had stands at the Skills Show it would be better if more of the industry had taken part and exhibited to engage potential apprentices and their parents.
In the vehicle painting competion event, Kaine Corpuz (Queensland) won the gold in a tightly contested event with Maxine Colligan (New South Wales) and Amber Gabelich (Victoria) taking silver and bronze respectively. In the automotive body event, the gold went to Matthew Brandt (New South Wales).
According to the chief judge of the vehicle painting event, Valspar Automotive technical manager Bradley Franklin, the event provided competitors with the benefit of intensive training with industry leaders.
“I think it’s something that every apprentice should aspire to in looking to compete in these competitions. With the skill sets that they get out of the event, they’re probably the most intensively trained and high-skilled apprentices in the country.
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“They get quite specific and intense training from all of these different avenues and it’s priceless – it opens up a lot of doors.
“It’s out of the scope of any sort of normal training apprentices who don’t compete would receive.
“They miss out on this intense training from companies who go out of their way to push the training up a couple of notches
for these competitors to be able to compete internationally.”
Axalta national training manager Paul Polverino echoed the praise for the competitors
“To see these extraordinary young people excel in producing outstanding levels of craftsmanship was a delight.
“We are proud to support these exceptional young Australians with new opportunities.”
The next step for competitors could be to represent Australia at the 2019 international competition to be hosted in Moscow, Russia.
“These competitors have to apply to be on the Skill Squad. The will be carefully monitored over the next three to six months. After they have taken part in training camps and other initiatives to hone their skills, we sit decide on who we’re going to take to compete internationally.” Franklin said.
“No one’s guaranteed a spot, competitors will have to work and train pretty hard between now and the end of November for us to see if its going to be beneficial to send them or not.
“They’ve got to tick a lot of boxes between now and getting a start at the international event.”
“To see these extraordinary young people excel in producing outstanding levels of craftsmanship was a delight.”
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