DuPont Performance Coatings is the Gold Sponsor of the WorldSkills Car Painting competition. Part of that sponsorship includes providing coatings material for the competition, but the commitment goes deeper.

Patrice Marcil is the National Training Manager for DuPont Performance Coatings. He says that although DuPont coatings products are in use worldwide, the ones used to prepare for the competition had to come from Canada.

“Competitors will be using a full line of environmentally friendly DuPont products including DuPont Cromax Pro Waterborne Basecoat” says Marcil. “We’ve shipped out a lot of product to the DuPont training centre in Belgium, where they’re training many of the European competitors. We also had a group from the UK who came for a week of training in Toronto. The products are similar around the world, but the clear coats used here are a little bit different from what they are used to.”
Patrice Marcil will also be attending WorldSkills as a technical advisor to the competition.

“We’re providing technical support, to ensure the products are used properly and safely,” says Marcil. “I’ll also be briefing the judges and participants, as well as providing tech sheets.”

The story of WorldSkills goes back to 1946 in Spain. José Antonio Elola Olaso, who was General Director of OJE (Spanish Youth Organization), had an insight: it was necessary to convince people that their future depended on an effective vocational training system. He got the ball rolling, and by 1953, several other countries were participating. According to Patrice Marcil, the reason for the skills competitions around the world has remained the same.

“The goal is, first and foremost, to promote the trades,” says Marcil. “We need more people entering the trades, and this is a good way to encourage that. It’s a good fit for DuPont. It’s an international competition, and we’re an international company. We need to support the trade that supports us.”

For more information on WorldSkills Calgary 2009, please click here.