More than 6,000 standout students – all of them state contest winners – gathered in Kansas City earlier this summer to compete in the SkillsUSA National Championships as they prepare for careers in the collision repair industry.
“These are the best of the best in the country, and represent the future of our industry,” he points out. “We want to make sure they are learning the latest techniques in collision repair and using the products and tools needed for today’s advanced vehicles.”
Contestants in the Automotive Refinish Technology competition demonstrated their ability to perform jobs and skills based on the task list outlined by the National Institute for Automotive Excellence (ASE) and the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF).
The challenges included a series of workstations to assess their skills in feather, prime and block; masking and paint code identification; and blending and color matching. They also completed an interview, a written estimate and an ASE written exam. The overall appearance of the finished products, speed and proper safety practices was assessed by a panel of judges.
In the Collision Repair Technology competition, the students demonstrated jobs and skills based on a task list involving metal straightening, welding, plastic repair and structural analysis. The overall appearance of the finished product, speed and proper safety practices were judged. And there are written tests on estimating, structural analysis and a mock ASE exam. The students are also interviewed by the judges.
In the paint preparation segment, 3M’s Dan Wittek oversaw the contestants as they masked off an identified repair area on donated vehicles from Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Algie managed the students in the plastic repair segment as they fixed a plastic fascia, ranging from prepping and sanding the repair area to fixing minor damage and tabs using 3M’s repair adhesives and cleaning products.
Algie recently answered a series of questions from Aftermarket Business World about the program:
Q: What is the overall purpose of SkillsUSA?
A: 3M’s Automotive Aftermarket Division participates in SkillsUSA to give back to an industry that has been so generous to 3M. There’s a shortage of qualified professionals, and we want to ensure that we are helping educate and train these professionals for the future. It’s our responsibility to our industry.
Q: What are the grade levels of the students you’re attempting to reach?
A: Through SkillsUSA, we target primarily high school and post-secondary school students. These are the folks who are entering the profession in the coming years.
Q: How would you assess the scope of today’s students wishing to enter the repair industry?
A: There are many high school students who don’t know today about the potential opportunities in the collision repair industry. There’s probably an outdated image of who pursues a career in collision repair. But in reality, today’s collision repair professionals are highly trained, knowledgeable about advanced materials and electronics, and true artists in building and restoring vehicles.
There are also many jobs beyond collision repair – from customer service to estimating to marketing. And these are jobs that will always be based here in the U.S. We want to help them understand all of the opportunities and get the skills and training to pursue these jobs.
Q: How does SkillsUSA motivate students to become involved?
A: 3M does a lot of regional events throughout the year, providing products and people for judging for regional events. Through this, we encourage them to hone their skills and participate in the national championships. We also support some of the construction competitions through our other divisions.
Q: How do you support these educational efforts?
A: For the past 20 years, we have donated thousands of volunteer hours for training and judging at the local and national level, as well as thousands of dollars in products used in the competitions. We also donate products to the Collision Repair Education Foundation to go to the training programs at the high school and post-secondary school levels.
Q: What are some of the industry organizations that you are aligned with in your educational efforts?
A: We work with the Collision Repair Education Foundation, our own 3M Hire Our Heroes program to provide scholarships and tool grants to returning veterans and their families, NABC and WIN, among others.
Q: What does the SkillsUSA National Championships entail?
A: Students at the high school and post-secondary school level join SkillsUSA to expand their learning from purely the technical skills to the interview skills, management skills and personal skills needed to be successfully on the job. We help support that throughout the year with product donations and volunteers for the local, regional, state and national competitions. We are probably involved in more than 150 competitions a year for collision repair and paint finishing.
Q: How can people in the industry get more information about this program?
You can visit www.3mcollision.com and www.skillsusa.org for more details on how to support collision repair education.
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