Welded Art Competition Showcases Student Talent and Technical Skill, Aims to Inspire Youth

Technical students from six schools across the country gathered in Belize City today to show off their talents in welding at the first-ever Welded Art Competition, hosted by Fabrigas Belize. The competition challenged students to show creativity and technique in metal works by creating art pieces from recycled materials. Justin Sabido, sales manager at Fabrigas Belize, says that the competition is aimed at promoting technical and vocational education among youths. 

Justin Sabido, Sales Manager, Fabrigas Belize: “We decided to do this competition because we noticed that there are less and less young students, young persons entering the welding field and it’s creating a shortfall in skilled laborers throughout the country in various industries. So we’ve devised this idea to try to attract young students into the field of welding. It has to be, if it’s not attractive then we won’t get them to come because welding is hot, it’s sticky, it’s hard work so the idea behind it is to attract young students into this field because this is a career it’s not just a job. This will be a career not just a job. We’re looking for the use of recycled materials, we’re looking for creativity. We’re looking for complexity and we’re looking for value what value does it bring ?” 

When the final scores were tallied, the Orange Walk ITVET emerged victorious, with their piece, the “Orange Walk ITVET Eagle”. Joshua Cob, welding instructor at the school, and Sahil Cruz, one of the students, explained the inspiration for and the makeup of the piece. 

Joshua Cob, Welding Instructor, Orange Walk ITVET: “The welding program at the Orange Walk ITVET at the moment is getting the trainees to know more about what we need in the field or in our country. For example we need construction of burglar bars, safety doors, and so forth. And when this project came to us we said let’s build something that no-one will know or no-one has an idea that we’re going to be doing. Let’s build our personal eagle because if you can see we have it in our logo, we have the eagle. At our campus we have a wooden eagle so I told them let’s build an eagle.”

Sahil Cruz, Student, Orange Walk ITVET: “It’s made up of the tank of a motorcycle. The head is made of the chain of a motorcycle. The feathers are made of sheet metal that we used from general construction that they left behind and it took us approximately a month and a half to make it. We did it during our welding session in class.”

Reporter: How many of you did it take to put this together ? 

Sahil Cruz, Student, Orange Walk ITVET: “The majority of the class because they helped us to cut the feathers, measure it.”

The Toledo ITVET took second place, and Julian Cho Technical High School placed third. Other participating schools included Escuela Secondario de México, Mopan Technical High School, and Orange Walk Technical High School. While each school won a prize, the top three walked away with equipment to support their welding programs.