The winners of the annual
SkillsUSA Championships
in Automotive Refinish and Collision Repair categories
were recently announced. Aims Community College-Windsor,
Greeley, Colorado student Benjamin Falconer, won the
Automotive Refinishing Technology High School division
national Gold Medal.
Aims Community College
switched to Martin Senour automotive paints in the
summer of 2014 and subsequently, Falconer and his fellow
technical education students have all been trained in
automotive refinishing exclusively using NAPA/Martin
Senour products.
According to Fred Brown, auto collision repair director,
and Zac Kreider, auto collision repair instructor, both
at Aims Community College, "We have a national
refinishing SkillsUSA first place champion that has been
proudly trained on Martin Senour products. This student
beat thousands of competitors throughout the nation in
the district, state, national level competitions and
will have an opportunity to compete at the world
competition. It's outstanding that a Martin Senour
trained student won such a prestigious competition."
"SkillsUSA Championships is a phenomenal event that
allows vocational students to showcase their amazing
talents, and also provides the public a look into the
world of skilled trades," says Rod Habel, Martin Senour
director of training. "The intensity and talent of the
field of competitors in the automotive refinish category
was incredible to witness. Each is a winner in our eyes.
We are proud to assist in growing talent to help expand
this industry and especially proud of Benjamin and his
support team."
"Martin Senour has been the only sponsor for SkillsUSA
for each of the past 20 years. We supply assistance each
year in the form of manpower, associated products and
other materials," adds Habel. "Of note, every four years
– which will occur in 2016 again – we will also supply
all the paint and all panels to be used in
the competition."
Robert McKenzie Jr., executive director of
Refinish Distributors Alliance (RDA), personally congratulated and presented all the
winners with their scholarships, including Falconer as
the Gold Medalist in the High School Automotive
Refinishing Technology competition. The scholarships can
be used by the winner to cover the cost of additional
training. RDA also provided each winner with
Intro to Collision Repair classes from I-CAR.
SkillsUSA is the national organization for students in
trade, industrial, technical and health occupations
education. It annually sponsors the SkillsUSA
Championships that recognize the achievements of career
and technical education students, while also encouraging
them to strive for excellence and pride in their chosen
occupations.
The contests are planned by technical committees
compromised of labor and management representatives and
are designed to test the skills needed for a successful
entry-level performance in given occupational fields.
Safety practices and procedures - an area of great
concern to labor and management alike - are judged and
graded to constitute a portion of a contestant's score.
In the Automotive Refinishing contest, contestants
demonstrated their ability to perform jobs and skills
based on the task list outlined by the
National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence
(ASE)
and the
National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation
(NATEF). The competition includes a series of workstations to
assess skills in the following areas: surface
preparation; spray gun operation; paint mixing, matching
and applying; solving paint application problems;
determining finish defects, causes and cures; and
utilization of safety precautions. The competitor also
completed an interview, a written estimate and an ASE
written exam. The overall appearance of the finished
product, speed and proper safety practices were judged.