The Polish Chamber of Commerce for Agricultural Machines and Facilities has been implementing and carrying out educational projects for many years. The competitions are one of them and they have been very well received both among professionally active mechanics and high school students who intend to practice this profession in the future. Every year, the finals of the competitions were held during the AGRO SHOW exhibition. This time, both the practical and theoretical part of both competitions took place at the Life Sciences School Complex in Poznań.
The commonly known difficulties related to limiting contacts and holding public events also influenced the organization and course of competitions. The main challenge was to organize all the competitions in one place and at approximately same time, while maintaining safety requirements. This task was executed perfectly thanks to a very good cooperation with the school management.
Four competitors entering the finals of the “Mechanic for a Medal” competition, as in previous years, had to solve a test consisting of 10 questions. The questions were related to problems that mechanics may encounter in their daily work, and concerned purely mechanical issues as well as faults in the hydraulic, electrical and pneumatic systems. There was also a metrological question. In the second part of the competition, the mechanics had to face three practical tasks.
The first task was to identify the fault in the tractor using diagnostic tools connected to the CAN network. The second and third task were carried out with the help of facilities designed for teaching the construction of hydraulic and pneumatic systems. Mechanics can use such facilities during their training. The results obtained by the participants are very pleasing. All mechanics coped with the practical tasks flawlessly. The test was somewhat troublesome, but one should take into account that the competitors worked under time pressure.
To sum up, when compared with previous competitions, the results are very similar. As the questions created by the panel of experts are more and more detailed, this result should be considered highly satisfactory. After counting the results, the winners of this year’s “Mechanic for a Medal” competition were:
1st place – Krzysztof Szostek, an employee of PHU Perkoz Sp. z o.o. from Brodnica
2nd place – Michał Gużyński from PPHU ZIP Agro
3rd place – Michał Toczyski from P.W. Księżopolski

In the case of the “Young Mechanic for Medal” competition, conducting the competition in one place, which is an agricultural technical school, allowed to increase the number of practical tasks carried out by the participants. The finalists in the competition were nine best young mechanics, high school students, who had beaten almost 200 competitors, obtaining the highest results when solving the test published on the website of the Polish Chamber of Commerce for Agricultural Machines and Facilities.
As in the case of the “Mechanic for a Medal” competition, the finals consisted of two parts: a test and practical tasks. The test included 15 questions from the curriculum in secondary technical schools with an agricultural or agrotronic profile. In the second stage, students had four practical tasks to complete. For the first time, there was a task related to power hydraulics carried out using teaching facilities mentioned before. Admittedly, it caused the most trouble for the contestants. Some of the participants gave up on completing the task.
All other mechanical tasks were performed efficiently and reliably. This may indicate an increase in the level of practical and theoretical knowledge in the field of typical mechanical issues among participants of the competition “Young Mechanic for a Medal”. At the same time, attention should be paid to the problems related to the implementation of the task using the power hydraulics control elements. It is undoubtedly a challenge for schools in the preparation of future contestants.
The competition was fierce. After counting the results, the winners of the “Young Mechanic for a Medal” competition in 2020 were:
1st place – Paweł Oleszczyk – ZS CKUR in Dobryszyce
2nd place – Rafał Piechaczek – ZS in Komorno
3rd place – Sławomir Łukomski – ZS Przyrodniczo-Usługowe in Gniezno

The winners of this year’s competition, together with Marek Wiącek, who will represent our country at the EuroSkills competition in Austria in January, will compete for the opportunity to go to the WorldSkills competition in Shanghai, which will take place in September 2021.