Young tradies clean up

TASSIE tradies and trainees have held their own against stiff competition at the WorldSkills 2018 National Championships.

The state team claimed the Evatt Shield for the best performing region, winning six gold, a silver and two bronze medals at Australia’s biggest vocational education and excellence competition.

The biennial WorldSkills competition aims to find the best young apprentices, trainees, tradespeople and VET (vocational education and training) graduates in the country by testing them over three days with set tasks, strict judging criteria and a race against the clock. Some of the national winners will go on to represent Australia in the WorldSkills international championships, or “tradie Olympics”, in Kazan, Russia next year.

TasTAFE chief executive Jenny Dodd said 15 of the 17 young people in the Tasmanian team were trained at TasTAFE.

“This is an amazing achievement and an indication that we are punching well above our weight and our training is up there with the best in Australia,” she said.

“Competing at this event takes skill, talent and an indepth knowledge of your vocational trade. Competitors spend months training and practising for the competitions and it’s clear that Team Tasmania was extremely wellprepared.”

WorldSkills Australia chief executive Brett Judd said many parents still did not understand the value of VET.

“VET pathways are terrific. They are also shorter and sharper. In VET you can get a lot of experience in six months then join the workforce as you continue to learn.”

The competition was part of careers expo Skills Show Australia in Sydney from June 2-4.