Tuning up for WorldSkills

Apprentice mechanic Adam Buhagiar is in the third year of his automotive apprenticeship at Wetherill Park TAFE, NSW. He isn't shy about his ambitions in the automotive performance industry.

"I would like to see what the world has to throw at me. I am a very competitive person by nature."

When we meet him, Adam is participating in a Worldskills Regional competition. He was selected from two combined classes of students to represent his TAFE in the regional competition.The regional competition is a precursor to the Worldskills NSW State competition.

Participants in the competition have six tasks to complete that recreate typical automotive servicing tasks that the students would face in a real world scenario.

Regional competition co-ordinator Bob Badewitz is proud of the work the students do.

"Our guys are very, very competent," he said. "It gives them some self-esteem to know what they're like against their counterparts."

Adam specialises in performance tuning and building circuit racing cars. Although he has been working in the industry for five years, he notes that light automotive repair can be "very challenging".

"You may have sorted out this problem a million times before and it can be completely different on the next job", he explains.

And how does Adam rate his chances in the competition? "If I think I am good at something, I would like to see someone try and stop me."