De Beer recognises outstanding students

De Beer Refinish has implemented an initiative to reward outstanding students in their study of automotive spray painting.

The award recognises students who commit to a future in continuing a quality finish in the industry.

As many bodyshop owners are well aware, finding an enthusiastic apprentice who takes great pride in their work can be rare to find.

The team at De Beer Refinish felt it was necessary to raise the profile of the fantastic students who are topping their classes and becoming our greatest assets of the future.

Such a student is Illawarra TAFE final year student, Todd Chapman who was awarded the most outstanding student of 2009 at Illawarra Institute of TAFE.

Head teacher of auto body repair and refinish, Alan Pyper couldn’t sing any higher praises of his star student. “Todd’s always been a very mature kid. He has always excelled at a high level and his quality of work is always exceptional,” Pyper said.

Being awarded the Best Student in the first year of his apprenticeship, it was obvious from early on that Chapman was always going to be setting a high standard for his peers. According to Chapman, the campus has the best of everything.

“The facilities in our department were great – whatever you could possibly think of to complete any task – they had it all,” he said

Chapman works for Ulladulla Smash Repairs where he started his apprenticeship. “We have two paint systems in the shop, one being a De Beer Refinish system that I use probably on 90 per cent of jobs,” he said. Chapman says new and changing aspects of the industry excite him.

“There’s new colours, new cars, different techniques – just keeps the job interesting. Each day you can be doing something different which I enjoy,” he said.

And he enjoys the satisfaction of completing a good job. “I like the transformation of something old and knocked around into a real head-turning quality finish. “I just want to work really hard towards owning my own business in
the future.”