Seeking a champ in refridgeration

If it's not 22-year-old Nuttapong Punyasri, winner of this year's National Skills Competition, then, it would be Pornchai Permsantia, runner-up at the same tournament.

The two candidates are third-year students from the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at Rajamangala University of Technology Isan (RMUTI) and were chosen to participate in the selection camp, which began in April.

"Not everyone can get this far and I am so proud of it, " says Nuttapong, who sees this as a once-in-a-life-time chance to serve the country on an international level.

Since training is set for every day of the week, both competitors have had to drop a whole semester at university. However, both say it's worthwhile.

"What I gain here is more than I would in class or out in an internship," says Pornchai, 22, a mechanical engineering student. "At the camp, I have the chance to learn and use new, high-tech equipment, such as a micron-gate vacuum or an R410A coolant, which is still not widely used in the country."

Everyday, both students are trained to set up an air-conditioned and a refrigerated room.

Each training programme is based on real competition topics such as practising arc welding, fixing the electronics in an air-conditioner and solving unknown problems inside air-conditioners or refrigerators.

"It's lots of fun and a great challenge to practice fixing unknown problems. It is our job to take turns in laying a trap inside the system and having the other solve it," says Nuttapong, an electrical engineering major student.

Since the selection camp is located inside the RMUTI campus, other students can also see what the two contenders are doing.

"This is a mind-preparation exercise," says Asst Professor Chuchai T Siriwattana, who is supervising the training.

"During the competition, there will be judges and observers coming to the booth, consulting each other and checking on their work all the time. So, they have to have high levels of concentration."

Though only one of them can get the job of representing Thailand, Nuttapong and Pornchai say that it wouldn't weaken their friendship.

"[No matter who is selected], it is the country that would benefit and become more famous," Pornchai explains.

The representative will be announced two weeks before the competition starts.

The World Skills tournament, formally known as Skill Olympics, is a biannual worldwide competition on vocational skills. It is organised by the International Vocational Training Organisation (IVTO), which aims to provides a cost-effective means for governments and industries to cooperate and achieve higher standards for vocational education and training.

Forty-five countries will participate this year, and Thailand will enter 17 of 40 competition categories.

In 2005, Nitipong Bupphamala, also a student from RMUTI, won the bronze in the refrigeration category at the contest held in Helsinki, Finland.

This year, Thailand's refrigeration skills team is being funded and sponsored on technology and equipment used during training by the Emerson Climate Technologies, an international provider of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions for residential, industrial and commercial applications.

Watchara Saengsrisin

The Nation