ChipsAway employee heads to World Championships

Student and ChipsAway employee reaches final of international WorldSkills Championship.

A talented student from Gateshead College has buffed and primed his way into the finals of the prestigious tradespeople’s competition, the WorldSkills Championships.

20-year-old Callum Green will be occupying one of the spots on the UK’s auto refinishing team when it heads to Kazan, Russia in late August, after proving his talent at ChipsAway’s North Tyneside car care centre. The franchise has helped him through his NVQ Level 3 in motor vehicle body repair and paint refinishing, which he has just completed.

After leaving school at 16, Callum struggled to find his passion. He approached ChipsAway for a job and was advised by franchisee Garry Charlton to enrol in an apprenticeship, through which he was able to learn the trade at the franchise’s centre.

It was during this that Callum’s tutors and the car repair franchise noticed his talent and decided to nominate him for WorldSkills, an international tradespeople’s championship that attracts participants from over 70 countries.

After battling his way through qualifying rounds and bagging a silver medal in the WorldSkills UK finals after managing to impress the judges, he’s now been given the chance to take his talent global.

Callum is thrilled at the opportunity and says he can’t wait for the ultimate test in the final. “Now I’ve got the chance to test myself against the world’s best in Russia. It’s an unbelievable opportunity that would never have come about had I not been on the apprenticeship programme.”

ChipsAway has over 40 car care centres across the UK for large repairs and an enormous network of over 200 franchisees, most operating from mobile workshop, which means your car body repairs can be completed quickly. It’s now expanded to over 10 countries, including the USA and much of Europe.