Maxine Colligan has won a Bronze Medal as a Skillaroo in Car Painting at the 45th WorldSkills International Championship in Kazan, Russia. She was also awarded ‘Best in Nation’ for receiving the highest total points out of all her teammates. Gold was awarded to Ting-Yu Yang from Chinese Taipei and Silver to Conor McKevitt from the United Kingdom. Australia, as a country, placed 8th in the world overall.
WorldSkills said the 2019 Global Skills Challenge (GSC) was the biggest international skills excellence event to be held in Australia in 2019, having 500 competitors from 15 different countries take part in 24 different skills competitions. It simulated international competition conditions and was held in several Victorian TAFEs. The event was the final training exercise for the WorldSkills Australian Skills Squad before the Skillaroo selection.
“Russia joined WorldSkills International in 2012, and seven years later it is already organising the WorldSkills Competition,” said David Hoey, WorldSkills International CEO. “This event contributes not only to our movement, but to the Russian market as well.”
“For me, representing my trade at the WorldSkills International Championships in Kazan means that I get to represent other females in trades and show them that women can do anything men can do,” said Colligan. “I aspire to convince young women out there to give it a go because they will always surprise themselves with their abilities.”
Colligan was mentored by Bradley Franklin, Deputy Chief Expert in Car Painting, from Sydney, and her journey was sponsored by Glasurit and Holden. She completed her trade training through TAFE NSW, Sydney West and currently works at RPM in Milperra.