Burlington Auto Body Student Wins Ontario Skills Award

A student from the autobody class at General Brock Secondary School is this year’s winner of the Ontario Skills technological contest for autobody.
This contest, held this year in Waterloo, Ontario in the first week of May, pits high school and apprenticeship students in a contest of skill and talent to determine the winner. The Gold award for the Ontario championship for autobody went to Mark Millson, an Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) student, from teacher Ron Postma’s Burlington, Ontario class.
Sam Piercey, collision centre owner/operator of Budd’s Collision on Speers Road in Oakville, where Mark works as apprentice, encourages students to take autobody and collision repair courses in High School.
"The future of our industry is these types of talented students that can make $60 to100 thousand dollars a year when working in a professional shop," he says. Calling Millson a talented, good body man, Piercey is also contributing funds to offset the costs of sending the apprentice and his instructor to represent Ontario in the Skills Canada competition against all the other provincial teams to be held in Winnipeg, Man., on May 22.
About half of the money has already been raised through donations by local collision repair shops, with the local trade association, HARA (Hamilton District Autobody Repair Association) kicking in $500.
Contributions to help defray the costs of the trip are being gladly received at HARA at 1-866-309-4272 (HARA) or by contacting David Graves at the Halton Board of Education. The Board will issue tax receipts.
Volunteer judges for this year’s Ontario competition were Randy Pickard from City Automotive, John Hido from Discovery Collision and Jack Martino from Martino Bros. Collision. Judges commented on the large number of students and parents asking about collision repair as a future career choice.