This joiner is skilling it
A COLAC-based joiner has been selected for the Australian team set to compete in the WorldSkills International in Kazan, Russia, next month.
Tom Neave, 22, splits his time between working in Colac and studying at the Gordon, and is excited to represent Australia at the event.
He was introduced to the world of skills competitions by one of his teachers and entered his first competition in 2015.
Mr Neave said the experience was the best part of competing in these events.
“You learn a lot of skills,” he said.
Last year, Mr Neave won the gold medal for joinery at the National WorldSkills Championships in Sydney, winning by 22 points and impressing the judges with his “attention to detail”.
Seventy-nine countries currently compete in the WorldSkills international, which currently takes place every two years.
As with the Olympics, hosting rights are given to a different city for each competition, with the most recent championships being hosted by Abu Dhabi in 2017.
Spain has hosted the most championships of any participating country with 11 — including the first six competitions between 1950 and 1957.
Australia has only hosted the competition once — in Sydney in 1988, before the event became the WorldSkills International in 1999.
Russia first joined the competition in 2012, and Kazan was announced as host of the 2019 competition after a vote at the WorldSkills General Assembly meeting in 2015 in São Paulo, Brazil.
Kazan’s bid for the 2019 event was “full of ambitious projects”, according to WorldSkills CEO David Hoey.
WorldSkills Kazan 2019 will take place between 22-27 August.