The Motor Traders’ Association of NSW has announced a new partnership with the WorldSkills National Championships.
The industry association is sponsoring the event from August 17 to 19, and also sending six skilled automotive apprentices to Melbourne in order to compete against Australia’s best young talent.
MTA NSW says it is dedicated to creating opportunities that help to showcase the possibilities of a career in the automotive industry and promote the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.
MTA NSW progam coordinator and trainer Mario Borg says that WorldSkills provides a great platform for up and coming talent to showcase their abilities, and also highlights the excellent level of training their apprentices receive.
“Effective training is crucial in the automotive industry, particularly while the sector is undergoing such significant changes,” he says.
“The WorldSkills competition provides a key opportunity for recognising emerging talent in our industry,” MTA CEO Stavros Yallouridis says.
“Not only is WorldSkills a chance to demonstrate the high quality of our training, it’s also an opportunity for our organisation to give back and invest in the future careers of our talented trainees.”
WorldSkills provides an opportunity for Australia’s trainees and apprentices across various industries to test their skills and knowledge against their peers. Held every two years, the National Championships is the biggest trades and skills competition in the country, with the 2023 event featuring over 50 competitions.
The three-day competition, taking place from August 17 to 19 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, will see automotive apprentices battle against one another in a series of challenges designed to test their skills across a range of disciplines.
Automotive apprentices from around the country will be competing at the national event. Each secured their place after winning their respective WorldSkills regional competitions, which featured more than 500 events across 34 regions of Australia, with more than 4,000 apprentices, trainees and students competing.
Neha Singh, a 21 year old spray painter, is one of six apprentices from MTA NSW competing at the National Championships. As a female in a male-dominated industry she is hoping that through her participation at the event, she can encourage more women to join the industry. Singh currently runs a popular TikTok page with more than 140,000 followers where she showcases her work.
“I don’t want to generalise, but some people think that females might not do as well, so it’s good to see other women in the industry competing, and to be able to prove some of those people wrong,” Singh says
“I always hear that women have a better eye for colour matching and greater attention to detail, which is a very big part of this trade.”
MTA NSW RTO general manager Ian Price says he hopes the event will encourage soon-to-be-school leavers to consider a career in the automotive sector, which is currently experiencing a drastic skills shortage.
“It’s so important for us to promote and raise the profile of the automotive sector; especially right now amid the sweeping transformation of our industry, as electric vehicles begin to take centre stage and new skillsets are required to service them” he said.
“In fact, the mechanics of the future will no longer be thought of as having grease on their hands – instead they’ll be known as vehicle ‘technicians’ and will have far more technical skillsets than what has previously been required to work on petrol vehicles,” he says.
Luke Callaway, a third-year apprentice at MTA NSW who is competing in the Auto Elect category says: “Quality training is essential for working in the automotive industry, and it’s great to see the training evolve to suit the future. I’m excited to have the opportunity to be trained in new technologies like electric vehicles with MTA NSW.”
Successful medallists from the National Championships will be invited to join the ‘Skills Squad’ offering the chance to travel to the WorldSkills International Competition, taking place in Lyon, France in 2024.
