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BTS 19: Record entrants for Apprentice Challenge

An unprecedented 70 entrants will line up to compete in the 2019 HVIA National Apprentice Challenge.

 

A record number of apprentices from across Australia have been nominated for a chance to compete at the HVIA National Apprentice Challenge staged during the 2019 Brisbane Truck Show.

Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) CEO Todd Hacking says the response is testament to the emerging talent coming into the heavy vehicle industry.

“The response to the 2019 National Apprentice Challenge has been exceptional, with a total of 70 nominations received from second, third and fourth-year apprentices Australia-wide,” he says.

“These young people are at the beginning of a journey that will open doors to hugely rewarding career paths with Australian and international companies involved in the manufacture, distribution and support of trucks, trailers and their components.

“These talented young people then had to compete for the honour of representing their region; two apprentices from each of our three regions have been selected to come to the Brisbane Truck Show for the staging of the live competition.

“The successful apprentices secured an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2019 Brisbane Truck Show for the four days.

“Competing teams will receive tool prizes provided by Warby Tools with the winning team hosted by our major competition sponsor NTI Truck Assist to the Gold Coast 600 Supercars Championship event in October.”

The selected regional teams will compete in heats for the first three days of the event. As the clock ticks, their goal is to identify and rectify a series of programmed faults on identical trucks, this year generously supplied by Iveco Trucks Australia.

The top two teams from the heats will go head-to-head in the final on day four of the Truck Show.

The event is being coordinated by former HVIA director Chris Musch.


Click here for an overview of the Brisbane Truck Show 2019!


“To determine the final teams all nominees sat a two-hour online test, set and graded by TAFE Queensland SkillsTech,” Musch says.

“The two apprentices with the best results in the exam from each region, form the team for their region.

“The teams are the Eastern Region comprising apprentices from Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT; Southern Region representing Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia; and the North-Western Region from Western Australia and the Northern Territory.”

Musch knows first-hand how far an apprentice’s career can go.

“I started in this great industry as an apprentice when I was 15, just like our nominees,” he says.

“It has given me opportunities to work in many different sectors of the industry, both here in Australia and overseas, from the shop floor and into different levels of management.

“It is also important to acknowledge the companies that invest in these young people and the industry’s future.

“Congratulations to all of them for nominating their apprentices into this year’s Challenge.

“Always a leader in this space, Cummins South Pacific nominated an outstanding 22 apprentices from branches across Australia.”

To catch all the action head to the Brisbane River side (loading bay) of Hall 3 on the Ground Floor at 1pm daily for the HVIA National Apprentice Challenge.

The 2019 Brisbane Truck Show will be held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from Thursday, May 16 to Sunday, May 19, 2019. To secure your ticket – and go into the draw to win a Toyota HiLux Rugged X – click here!

 

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