Lifetime Achievement Award inductee and Head Teacher at Ultimo TAFE, Garry Clear and his team hosted the WorldSkills Regionals on Saturday 14th September. The competition was fierce over a six-hour day with seven competitors in both the Autobody Repair and Refinishing categories.
The Refinish competition involved recreating two colour from base through to clearcoat, incorporating a stencil design and preparing for a decal application. Judges for this competition were Axalta’s Paul Polverino and Stephen Bulman, Sherwin Williams’ Brad Franklin and TAFE NSW’s Rainer Malkki.
The Gold Medal as awarded to Stephanie Wilks of Capital SMART, the Silver to Chris Woodger also of Capital SMART and the bronze to Ellie Glennie of Conventional Bodyworks and each won a Sagola Spray Gun courtesy of Axalta Coating Systems, the WorldSkills Australia’s coatings supplier.
In the Body Repair competition each competitor was required to complete a sectional repair on a sill, a full range of welds in situ and a guard repair. Judges were Garry Clear, former Mount Druitt TAFE Head Teacher Allan Ryan and one of our Future Leaders of the Industry and TAFE Teacher Trudy Camilleri.
The Gold Medal was awarded to Damian Nicollini of Capital SMART, the Silver to George Eddy of Exclusive Bodyworks and the Bronze Riley Skippen-Carlsson of BT Ryan Truck Repairs.
According to Garry Clear: “Once again it is so great to see the passion and the talent of the next generation of technicians in both categories and we are so proud to kick off the next round of WorldSkills here in Sydney”.
Editor: Look for the full story in the upcoming October issue.