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The Worldskills Sao Paulo 2015 Industrial Mechanic Millwright Competitors. From left to right: Japan, Brazil, Norway, Australia, Chinese Taipei, Canada, New Zealand, Holland.
Skills Ontario Industrial Mechanic Millwright Tech Chair Craig Brazil has just returned from the 43rd running of WorldSkills competition in Sao Paulo Brazil. Craig was the Chief Expert in the Industrial Mechanic Millwright (IMM) competition; his competition had 8 competitors from all four corners of the globe.
The four day competition was a resounding success with the outcome for its inaugural participation not decided until the last turn of the last nut and bolt on the last day of the competition, with the competitor from Norway winning gold, Australia, silver and Brazil taking the bronze. All 8 competitors, including Canadian Peter Lauser from Edmonton, Alberta, gave it all they had each day of the competition.
The competition was broken into two projects; one 18 hours in length required the competitors to carry out tasks in timed windows, machining on a lathe and milling machine, welding and fabrication, hydraulics, laser alignment, assembly and layout to build the required Hydraulic Conveyor. The smaller four hour project was a Centrifugal Pump repair and rebuild with vibration, electrical and thermography diagnostic readings to determine if the repair had been successful for a total of 22 hours of competition.
The Sao Paulo WorldSkills competition had over 250,000 thousand spectators over the four days where they took in the sights and sounds of over 1,100 competitors from 54 countries in 50 disciplines competing at the highest level against their peers from around the world. Craig said, “the first day when I spoke to the competitors prior to the competition beginning, I told them they were making WorldSkills history, in that they were the first group of competitors to participate in our trade competition, it was a privilege to work with these young men and the experts from their countries to bring this competition to the world for the first time.”
The feedback we have received from other countries observing the competition has been very positive and I am very confident we will have 11 or 12 competitors in Abu Dhabi in 2017 for the IMM competition.
