Vaughan, Ontario — SATA’s WorldSkills challenge wrapped up on Friday with the international competitors celebrating their efforts with a good old-fashioned Canadian summer barbeque.
While the four-day event was primarily a chance for competitors to practice their car painting skills in advance of the WorldSkills competition set to take place in Lyon, France from September 10 to 15, the team at the SATA training centre in Vaughan, Ont., scored competitors and timed their ability to complete task offering certificates for their overall placement on the final day.
Of the four competitors, Miguel Harvey, a WorldSkills competitor representing the United Kingdom, took home first place. In second place was Jason Scheter, representing Germany, and in third, was Holly-Ann Bayley, representing Barbados.
Collision Repair magazine was on the scene to catch up with the competitors and industry members for one last time before each competitor returned to their home country to continue their training for WorldSkills.
When speaking with Cecile Bukmeier, WorldSkills expert and autobody chair at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), she commented: “I’m really excited this year. I mean, I’ve been in the industry for the last 15 years and it has been a little bit lonely for me being the only woman that I could really see. I’m seeing more women come through the trade, I’m seeing more women participate in these events, and I’m excited this year. I believe this will be a record-setting year for WorldSkills with the women participation as competitors as well as experts.
“I won’t be alone anymore. I’m really, really excited.”
Collision Repair also caught up with Jamie Redd, the United States WorldSkills expert, who further commented he’s spent 26 years with the Skills program.
“My background is that I have been in the industry for 36 years. WorldSkills is a new adventure in the U.S. mindset. We sent a few over the last 15 or 20 years in the car painting, but there has been a conservative effort in the last five years to make sure we have a car painter from the U.S. represented at WorldSkills.
“I have been fortunate enough to have been picked, Kazan was my first one. It was totally eye-opening, and a super experience. It’s a lot of work compared to what I was expecting. But at the same time, I had a lot of good colleges from around the world to kind of mentor me in that first year and year two. I look forward to being a bit more assertive, but at the same time, it’s still a learning experience every year for me, and I’m looking forward to that part.”
“What has made me want to continue to work with Skills and kids over the 26 years,” Redd continued, “is that I was always told once you do it once, you can never get out of it; they want you there all the time, not necessarily the kids but to help and to see the kids. It is truly amazing to see the evolution of their young talent and their inspiration of wanting to be the best in any level that they’re competing. For me, working in the United States and moving into a national role is one of those weeks that I look forward to every year.”
“It is an amazing group of kids and amazing to see where the talent is. It is very common to hear shops that are desperately looking for technicians and thinking that there is nobody out there. My response to that: if you have a school in your backyard, you need to go get involved, and if you don’t think that’s worth your time, then you’re missing out on technicians who are trying to learn and have the ambition to be the best that they can be. They’re never going to have as much experience as a 36-year veteran in the business–they’re never going to be able to walk in and do that.
“A lot of us started at the age of 16 or 17 not knowing a thing about this. Yet somehow, our ambition and our passion for the industry led us to where we are. Shop owner, consultant, expert, trainer, any aspect of this opens the door for kids and helps them get prepared, but they’re still 17 and 18 years old, so they’re still not as experienced as we are, and we need to take that off the shelf and remember what it was like to be the same age. We were successful at it, there were kids, there are plenty of kids that will be successful at this with the right mentorship, and that part of it has always hooked me and always made me want to come back and encourage opportunities for those youth.”
“WorldSkills is a totally new adventure to me, and I didn’t even know there was this level of skill six years ago. For me, I just think about the pride you must have as an expert or country person, or anybody in the industry from that country to know that the best from your country is representing the industry for you, and hoping to do the best that they can, maybe even bring home that gold medal. Once they do that, I think it’s a celebration moment for all of us that are closely involved and I wish it was more celebrated by the industry and the countries when they get back. I certainly would love to see a representative from the U.S. or candidate from U.S. go on to win a medal and be celebrated back home when we arrive, much like an athlete might be. Success in the trades is truly an accomplishment. It’s a memory you can’t ever let go of.”
Check out photos from the event below as well as videos of the winners receiving their certificates.
