TasTAFE Metals teacher Michael Schnackenberg returns from the WorldSkills International Championships in France

Michael Schnackenberg (standing, far right) with the Australian judges and mentors at the WorldSkills Championships.

TasTAFE Metals teacher Michael Schnackenberg recently returned from Lyon, France, where he was a mentor and judge at the 47th WorldSkills International Championships – the biggest skills competition on the planet.

The WorldSkills event ran from 10–15 September, hosting around 1500 competitors from 75 countries, competing in 59 skills. More than 250,000 visitors attended the event.

International expert judges like Michael were selected for representing the best of their industry or skill category – a real win for Michael, and for TasTAFE.

Before the competition, Michael, his fellow judges and the Australian ‘Skillaroos’ team went to a WorldSkills bonding ‘boot camp’ in Victoria – then NSW Metals competitor Joseph Cramp travelled to Devonport to skill-up with Michael before the trip to France.

Once they got to Lyon, the team caught the tram out to the impressive Eurexpo venue. “I want you to imagine this particular hall,” Michael enthused, “– it would have probably been twice, if not three times the size of the Exhibition Hall in Melbourne. An enormous building.”

The 4-day competition began, and the crowds rolled in – but the competitors were flying solo, with no coaching allowed: “People were invited in to look over the fence, but they weren’t allowed to interact with the competitors,” Michael said. “Still, you might see a mum or a father giving the boy a bit of a thumbs-up or a nod – a bit of encouragement.”

Joseph was tasked with CAD drafting then building a complex metal windmill structure. “The design was kept a secret all the way up until the competition,” Michael said…when his role as a judge commenced, keeping very international company.

“I was put on a very good marking team,” he said. “There was me and an Irish guy – we checked the measurements. Then the Austrian guy checked that we were measuring things properly. Then the Chinese guy wrote the dimension down, and the Austrian double-checked that.”

Joseph finished a creditable 11th in the comp, which Michael says was of a very high standard – particularly in terms of accuracy. “They were achieving tighter tolerances and tighter results in closer dimensions than I would have expected,” he said.

Michael enjoyed some downtime after the competition – including a walk around old Lyon, a lazy lunch with the WorldSkills experts and some fine French wine (“…one of the best red wines I've had in my life!”). But his main learnings from the trip to France, in terms of benefits for TasTAFE, are around assessment.

“WorldSkills makes you think about how things are marked, how things are assessed, how systems are put in place to capture that information. I think WorldSkills do it very well,” Michael said. “I'd like to see our assessment packs a little bit closer with this format than perhaps what they are now.”

Looking ahead to the 2025 WorldSkills Australia National Championships in Brisbane, Michael cast his mind back to 2004 when he and fellow TasTAFE Metals teacher Troy Bester represented Tasmania at the WorldSkills Nationals, also in Brisbane. Michael took home the gold medal that year, and Troy the bronze.

“Troy and I would love to see a strong Metals team go forward to Brisbane again – and maybe they will have the same success that we experienced,” Michael said.

Michael (far right) and friends get into the French spirit in Lyon.