On Saturday, July 4, three engineering students specializing in Production/Maintenance at the Bordeaux-Talence campus won the regional gold medal at the Olympiades des Métiers (Skills Olympics) in the Industrial Production team category.
Clément Cazautets, Tom Lopez, and Mickaël Audureau are now preparing for the next stage of this high-level competition: the national finals in Lyon, scheduled for December 2020.
What are the Olympics you participated in?
The WorldSkills Competition, known internationally as WorldSkills, is the only international competition for skilled trades, similar to the Olympic Games for sports. We competed in the Industrial Production category as a team. This category mainly covers skills in CAD, CAM, conventional and CNC machining, metalworking, and electronics.
What motivated you to enter this contest?
We wanted to approach our profession in the form of a competition in order to give it another dimension and to challenge ourselves against others. In addition, improving our skills is a source of motivation: we have deepened, and even discovered, new knowledge in certain areas. Finally, the human dimension is important: testing our mental resilience within a close-knit team.
What was the expected outcome for this first stage of the Skills Olympics competition?
A mini crane had to be built. This topic was chosen by the jury and will also be the theme for the national and world finals, with additional constraints.
What were the main difficulties you encountered?
The main difficulties were training in areas where we had little or no knowledge. Added to this was the COVID-19 crisis, which postponed the regional trials from March to July and canceled the scheduled training sessions. This episode left the team in a state of uncertainty and meant that training had to be extended in order to be ready for the exam when the day came, without knowing the exact date.
What are the consequences of this regional victory?
We will be participating in training camps (mental and physical) to prepare for the trials with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine team. At the same time, members of the previous industrial production team from the Bordeaux-Talence campus (Clément Rousseau, Maxime Duret, and Jean Chanjou, who made it to the world finals in 2019) will be our coaches for the training sessions in collaboration with the company Coverplant. This will enable us to be ready for the national finals in Lyon in December 2020 and to qualify again for the world finals in Shanghai in the summer of 2021.
How did Arts et Métiers help you Arts et Métiers the exam?
The school was a great help. We were able to benefit from training and advice from professionals on conventional and numerically controlled machines. The CFAI Aquitaine, for its part, provided us with training in metalworking.
What has participating in this contest brought you so far?
This competition brought the team even closer together, reinforced our choice of career, and allowed us to gain experience. What's more, we were able to meet other enthusiasts and learn from the experiences of previous candidates.
