NABC to Raise $50,000 for SkillsUSA

The National Auto Body Council announced that it intends to raise $50,000 for SkillsUSA. The project was approved by NABC’s Board during their recent meeting in Washington, D.C.

“The revenue will be used to send two collision repair students to the World Skills Competition held May 26-29, 2005 in Helsinki, Finland,” said Chuck Sulkala, NABC’s executive director.

“The two competitors, one collision repair, and the other refinish, will be selected from the winners of the 2003 and 2004 National SkillsUSA Competition that was held in Kansas City, Mo.,” added Teresa Bolton, NABC Board member and project coordinator for the fund-raising effort.

“SkillsUSA, formerly known as VICA, has participated in the World Skills Competition since 1975,” continued Bolton. “It has always been privately funded, unlike teams from most other of the participating 35 countries who receive financial backing from their governments.

“World Skills Competition (WSC) results are one of the benchmarks by which a country’s global competitiveness is judged. Results clearly reflect the quality of career and technology training in participating countries. If an American team were not to participate,” stated Bolton, “Participation at this event would reflect on our country’s ability to train workers in technical skills to the level where we can compete globally.”

According to Doug Webb, NABC’s chairman, the Council will be soliciting funding at three separate levels. All of this being done under Bolton’s leadership. At the first level, the Council hopes to raise $30,000 in major corporate donations from companies actively involved in manufacturing materials and equipment used in the two disciplines of refinish and repair.

“Contributions at this level are limited to a maximum of $3000,” said Bolton. “The next $10,000 we hope to raise from other organizations, insurers for example, who have a vested interest in promoting the quality of the total collision repair process.

“The final $10,000 we hope to generate at the grass-roots level. That is from collision repair facilities, appraisal offices and the like. They, too,” concluded Bolton, “have a vested interest in seeing that there is a highly-trained, entry-level workforce coming through the educational system.”

For further information about the SkillsUSA program or the World Skills Competition, visit their Web sites at www.skillsusa.org and www.worldskills.org respectively.

To learn about the National Auto Body Council and its programs, and to contribute to the SkillsUSA team, visit www.autobodycouncil.org and click on the SkillsUSA link.