Golden Gun Apprentice of the Year
First female apprentice at Rowsells Collision Repair Centre in Whangarei; gold medallist at the WorldSkills NZ National Finals last year; and now Golden Gun Award winner – the top-performing Apprentice of the Year in Automotive Refinishing.
While Jemma is just happy to combine her two loves – art and cars – others know that behind her positive demeanour is an extremely talented, single-minded young woman capable of world-class refinishing work at only 21 years of age.
Her year is about to get bigger - next month she travels to the WorldSkills International Competition in Calgary, Canada, where, as a member of the Tool Blacks - New Zealand’s top vocational skills champions - she will compete with the best in the world.
Jemma’s success has won local acclaim not only for her talents, but her employer’s business as well.
Before her career in the automotive industry, Jemma completed a Visual Arts course at NorthTec. She completed her National Certificate in Automotive Refinishing in March 2008 with MITO, while working at Rowsells Collision Repair Centre.
In a unique position to appreciate Jemma’s achievements is her Industry Training Advisor Colin Kingi.
“All Jemma started with was her desire to complete a qualification in the industry, yet as a newly-qualified apprentice she has already attained a world class level of skill.”
Colin believes her success has done amazing things for the collision repair industry - raising the profile and encouraging equal opportunity employment. “She’s blown everyone out of the water.”
Jemma seems reticent to talk generally, but get her onto the subject of painting and colour and she’s away. She still loves to draw and paint in her spare time – Maori designs in acrylic on canvas.
And unsurprisingly she knows where she’s going with it– a typically bold and innovative field - art airbrushing – on motorbike tanks.
