- WorldSkills helps to promote worldwide vocational education and training
- BASF is exclusive sponsor of the Car Painting category
- Participants will use the waterborne paint system Glasurit 100 Line
In 2022, BASF signed a multi-year global industry partnership as the exclusive sponsor of the Car Painting category of WorldSkills International and will be the global silver partner of the 47th WorldSkills Competition in Lyon, France, with its premium refinish paint brand Glasurit. From September 10-15, over 1,500 participants from more than 65 countries will compete in 62 skill competitions at WorldSkills Lyon 2024. The organization helps to promote worldwide vocational education and training and to show current and future employment needs.
For the car painting skills category, 24 countries are registered to compete with the best talents for the WorldSkills Competition 2024. BASF will support the competition, providing its most advanced waterborne paint system Glasurit 100 Line, backed with outstanding proven benchmark results as the world's leading waterborne refinish paint system, for outstanding performance in process time, consumption, and sustainability.
"At BASF, we wholeheartedly support the WorldSkills promise, 'Where is a skill, there is a way!', and we are very excited to support the most important international skills competition in 2024 in Car Painting skills yet again," said Chris Titmarsh, Senior Vice President, Global BASF Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions at BASF. "We want to empower our next generation of young painters and continue to inspire and motivate them to build a career in the spray-painting profession. That's why this year, we have stepped up our promise with our most advanced Glasurit 100 Line and AraClass solutions, which will raise the overall bar for training and development as it leads the industry in process time, consumption, and sustainability and will provide an outstanding experience for our young talents."
With its Glasurit brand, BASF offers the latest in training for products, processes, and color with Know-how via its digital platform Refinity(R), one of the most extensive refinish information platforms in the industry. All finalists and WorldSkills experts will be given the opportunity to be trained by Glasurit's experts via a series of webinars, online training courses and select exclusive training courses at the worldclass Refinish Competence Centers running up to the WorldSkills Competition. "As part of WorldSkills, I am responsible for guiding young painters during their training period. I am excited to explore the capabilities of Glasurit 100 Line and use it to surpass all expectations", said Bastien Vaire, winner of the Competition EuroSkills Gdansk 2023, and ambassador of WorldSkills France, and part of the French Skills Team.
"Sustainability has become an important element embedded in the assessment of each skill competition as well as an integral skill for every painter to master. By supporting WorldSkills Lyon 2024, BASF again demonstrates the strongest commitment to promoting sustainable solutions and practices for future generations of skilled talent and education systems," said David Hoey, CEO WorldSkills International.
The Coatings division of BASF is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and refinish coatings, decorative paints as well as applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries. This portfolio is supplemented by "Beyond Paint Solutions", which enable new applications with innovative surfaces. We create advanced performance solutions and drive performance, design and new applications to meet our partners' needs all over the world. BASF shares skills, knowledge and resources of interdisciplinary and global teams for the benefit of customers by operating a collaborative network of sites in Europe, North America, South America and Asia Pacific. In 2023, the Coatings division achieved global sales of about EUR4.4 billion.