A York man is working alongside a leading expert in autobody repair skills to help to train the person who will represent the UK at an internationally-renowned skills tournament.

Stuart Alexander, who lives in York and works as National Sales Manager for Rugby-based Car-O-liner, has teamed up with Lancashire-based Karl Vella MBE, of the Kark Vella Group, to help decide whether Mark Brown, 22, from Glasgow; or Ross Varnam, 20, of Leicester, should represent the UK at the World Skills tournament in London this autumn.

Both Stuart and Karl will be putting Mark and Ross through their paces over the next few months, and marking them against World Skills standards. Whoever scores the highest marks will go through to the UK team and will be pitted against other highly skilled panel beaters from around the world.
To help get the lads in tip top condition, they will be spending weeks at the Karl Vella Group’s HQ in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, where, under Stuart and Karl’s watchful eyes, they will be tested on a number of different disciplines.

Everything is being recreated to ensure that the conditions in the test runs are similar to those in the finals – even down to the type of car they will be working on, a Honda Jazz.
Stuart said: “It’s great working with Karl as he is someone who is known for his expertise in the field of autobody repair."

“Next month, we’ll be replicating part of the competition here, and that will give both Karl and I an indication of how they are progressing. But like Karl, I believe that whoever makes the grade and gets through to the UK team has a great chance of securing a gold medal. I’m very optimistic about our chances this year.”

Karl, who is the World Skills’ UK expert for autobody repair, said: “Mark and Ross are both very talented lads and are learning new skills all the time – everything from repairs and finishing to nutrition, making sure they are focused both mentally and physically."

“The World Skills standards are very high and we will be asking them both to do a series of tasks, using the same grading criteria as they would be judged on in the finals."

“I believe that whoever makes it to the finals has got a real chance of getting a gold medal for the UK team, which would be a fantastic achievement.”

Karl has won numerous bodyshop awards for his dedication to the investment in training of young people. It was this dedication which made him worthy winner of the Bodyshop Training Award at the Bodyshop Industry Awards 2004.

Karl received his MBE in November 2006 for his contribution to training young people. In 2009, he was named the ABP Club Industry Knight for that year.