Pioneer in promoting trainees with STAMPP		09/17/2009

Glasurit sets new standards for training spray painters

Münster. Especially in emerging markets like China, South America or Eastern Europe, there is a growing demand for professionally repaired vehicles. Although the need for qualified spray painters will also increase in the future, there are no uniform standards for professional training. In many countries this branch of training does not even exist to date. The STAMPP training concept developed by Glasurit, a paint brand of BASF Coatings, is intended to change all this: “Our objective is to introduce professional training for spray painters and improve existing training concepts worldwide. With uniformly high quality standards, we want to make the refinishing sector attractive for young people,” explains Urban Johansson, head of the Coatings Refinish Academy and Project Manager for STAMPP.

STAMPP stands for “STimulate and revAMp the Paint Profession”, a one-year training program conducted in close cooperation with vocational schools and bodyshops. Following the basic technical training, STAMPP offers the trainee the option of specializing in the trade of automotive refinishing. Glasurit provides vocational schools and bodyshops with extensive training materials that precisely specify the subject matter in theory and practice. However, the curriculum based on European standards can be adjusted to the special aspects of the individual countries and regions. “So that the collection of materials is always kept up to date, we offer binders instead of textbooks. These can quickly be updated and supplemented by simply adding and removing pages,” says Johansson.

The quality standard of the dual training is guaranteed by contracts between vocational schools and bodyshops, in which both sides are obligated to comply with the specified training objec­tives. As a result, everyone ulti­mately benefits from the project. “Thanks to the high level of the training, the professional perspectives of the trainees improve con­siderably,” explains Johansson. “On the other hand, with STAMPP we create the conditions for qualified spray painters being available to our customers worldwide.”

But the program for supporting spray painter training doesn't just offer extensive teaching materials for the students. As many teachers are not specialized in the automotive refinish industry, STAMPP starts by training the trainers. Glasurit offers extensive trainer workshops adapted to the qualifications of the teachers. The next training courses for vocational school and technical college teachers will already take place in a few weeks at the Refinish Competence Centre of BASF Coatings in Münster. Although the quality of spray painter training in Germany has already increased, there are major differences regionally: “In this country as well, the trainees are often instructed by teachers from a different field – for example by electrical engineers or decorators,” says Glasurit National Head Trainer Michael Uhlenbrock.

To improve this situation, Glasurit is working on an education and training program for vocational school teachers. This takes place in close cooperation with the German Federal Specialized Group of Vehicle Spray Painters (BFL) of the Main Association of the German Painter and Spray Painter Trade.

However, the cooperation between Glasurit and vocational schools has long since crossed German borders. In addition to cooperation with the Technical School in Silkeborg, Denmark, the largest European paint school, STAMPP is already being introduced as a pilot project at two vocational schools in Moscow. Groups of twenty students will be trained there to become refinish experts in the course of the next year. And there are prospects for additional cooperations with Chinese vocational schools.