Panelbeating apprentice Samuel Broadbent has received a national award for his work on vehicles that had been shaken and stirred in collisions.
The 20-year-old, who has worked at Ngātea Panelbeaters for nearly two years, was awarded the Collision Repair’s Association’s Golden Gun Apprentice of the Year for 2022 at the beginning of March.
Samuel, who completed his New Zealand Certificate in Collision Repair and Automotive Refinishing earlier this year, said he was “pretty happy” with the accolade.
His father Phil Broadbent, who has owned Ngātea Panelbeaters for nearly 20 years, said the Golden Gun award highlighted the local panelbeating industry. “It’s not only Samuel who has done well, it’s our whole company,” he said.
“If Samuel gets the accolades, it brings to light the industry a little bit, it highlights our industry and the skills in this area.”
Phil said there was a list of attributes the association looked for in award candidates.
“[Samuel] did really well as far as his results go in his studies and part of his course was showing the practical work,” he said.
“His finishes were very nice with painting and they also look at the way Samuel communicates and I think they’re going to use Samuel to promote the industry to young folk.”
Phil said Samuel also received a $1000 donation from the Motor Industry Training Organisation (MITO), the opportunity to apply for a MITO post-trade scholarship and a toolset provided by RA Johnstone & Co Ltd.
“The money will be used for furthering education, he wants to do the panel side but he wants to go into more of the business management side as well a little bit further down the track,” he said.
“There’s a bit of a cost involved in that one and that money will help towards that.”
