This year’s SkillsUSA Championships will have a few new twists for collision repair students.
This year’s event will add a third collision repair contest: Collision Damage Appraisal and Total Loss Evaluation Technology. The other two are Automotive Refinishing Technology and Collision Repair Technology.
Students in the Collision Damage Appraisal competition will have to demonstrate that they’re capable of assessing frontal damage, unibody damage and light mechanical damage, as well as rear damage that necessitates quarter-panel replacement.
They’ll have to show that they can complete a handwritten estimate, a total-loss vehicle inspection report and a computerized estimate, including a “virtual” computerized estimate based on photos of the damage.
The new contest will be based on NATEF Collision Repair and Refinishing Standards and ASE Catalog of Collision Repair/Refinishing Tests B6 (Damage Analysis and Estimating), according to the SkillsUSA website.
The Collision Damage Appraisal competition is considered a “demonstration contest” this year, State Farm claim consultant Chris Evans explained during the April 11 Collision Industry Conference (CIC) in Westminster, Colo.
For the contest to become “permanent,” 10 states would have to send competitors for three years in a row, according to Evans, who is chairman of the SkillsUSA Collision Appraisal and Total Loss Evaluation Committee.
Evans encouraged collision repairers and other stakeholders to “support this and really encourage it, however you can,” whether it’s at the local, state or national level.
In related news, Polyvance President Kurt Lammon told the CIC that nitrogen plastic welding will be a scored segment of the Collision Repair Technology competition at this year’s SkillsUSA Championships. The championships are scheduled for June 25-29 in Louisville, Ky.
Asserting that most tech schools don’t have the proper equipment to perform nitrogen plastic welding, Lammon said Polyvance can provide training to collision repair students heading to the national championships.
“I don’t want kids to show up in Louisville with that deer-in-the-headlights look,” Lammon said.
