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Unbroken Bond

Written by News CRM

Wednesday, 02 May 2007

Stakeholders invest time and energy to help kids learn to weld.

Actions speak louder than words. It might be a tired cliché, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. But when it comes to encouraging the youth of today to become the industry’s workforce of tomorrow, sometimes words lead to action.

Take Don Treschak, President of Treschak Enterprises. In a column in our last issue he put forth a challenge to the industry: show support to the young people who show interest in our trade.

With the World Skills Competition coming to Canada in 2009, it is more vital than ever for the collision repair industry to attract the best of future tradespeople.Those words lead to action very quickly. Soon after the article was published, Don received a phone call from I-CAR Instructor Bill Davidge asking how he could help students improve their skills.

“I suggested Bill offer some coaching in MIG welding. After all what better person to do this than the I-CAR welding qualification expert? He jumped at the opportunity,” says Don.

By coincidence, the very next call Don received was from Nick DiLuca of CARS Collision in Burlington, ON. Nick was also offering to help. Don asked if he would offer his shop for the welding coaching project, and Nick replied with a resounding yes.

Why did Bill Davidge make the offer to donate his time to this project? Does he just like teaching MIG welding? Maybe, but there’s a far more important reason behind it.“Most of the challenges ahead are not really going matter all of that much if we do not have some good, well trained, passionate people to pull that trigger of the spray gun or to replace that quarter panel on that brand new SUV,” says Bill.

This is a sentiment with which Ron Postma would agree. Ron teaches at Robert Bateman Secondary School in Burlington, ON.

“This is a very exciting time for the students participating in the Ontario Skills Olympics Challenge,” says Ron. “The competitors have Treschak Enterprises, Toyota, 3M (Paul Birchall), Blackhawk RJ (Jerry Snyder) and others for corporate support. It is vital to have such ongoing support for the Skills program to maximize student participation and to allow them to have projects that are current and up to date.”

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