Automotive Body Repair Competition

Overview

Automotive Body Repair is a significant sector within the automotive engineering industry, it covers accident/crash repair, restoration of cars, vans, motorcycles, trucks, and other vehicles. Automotive body repairs include a wide range of skills, very high standards and critical thinking, precise process applications and problem solving.

This competition assesses the skills, abilities of competitors entering the field of Automotive Body Repair.

The competition has been designed to reflect the work role of a modern body repair technician, including skills such as time management, planning and problem solving.

This competition is managed by The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI)

The skills you need to demonstrate

Collect, analyse, and organise information
Communicate ideas and information
Plan and organise work activities
Use mathematical ideas and techniques
Solve problems
Use current technology
Comply with H&S legislation

Useful resources

Prepare for competition success

Our library of endorsed local skills competition briefs ‘benchmarking assessments’ helps prepare learners to build technical skills, productivity, and mindset competencies for national competition success, including employability progression pathways.

Paired with the benchmarking tracker, educators can record progress, identifying strengths and target areas for improvement. Together, they offer a reliable, standards-led framework, creating a sustainable model for skills development that supports educators to empower learners to be competition ready.

Access on the Learning Lab

Contact details

mmassey@theimi.org.uk

Entry criteria

The competitors should be studying a Level 3 automotive qualification OR completed an automotive apprenticeship within the last 12 months.
The competitor should have less than 4 years’ experience in the automotive industry
This is an individual competition

How it works

1. Register

Registrations open on Monday 2 March 2026, 9am and will close Friday 27 March 2026, midnight.

2. Entry Stage

Entry Stage will be released on Monday 2 March with a final deadline of Monday 20 April 2026.

3. National Qualifiers

Qualifiers will take place from Monday 18 May to Friday 22 May 2026 at Eyebox Training and Conference Centre in Coventry.

4. Training and Development

To help finalists prepare ahead of the UK Final, we will provide relevant technical training and share mindset development techniques, to support them to remain focused on achieving success.

Prepare students and apprentices by engaging with our benchmarking resources to master their skills and Mindset Masterclasses to build confidence and resilience on the WorldSkills UK Learning Lab.

5. National Finals

The National Finals are scheduled to take place in Wales during the week commencing 16 November 2026.

6. Squad UK

The WorldSkills UK/IMI Skills Competitions national finals also form part of the selection process for WorldSkills International competitions and the 2026 finals will be used to identify UK squad members for the world competition in Japan in 2028.