Harvey’s Lewis Italiano heads to Melbourne to compete in 2023 WorldSkills Australia National Championships

A young Harvey man will face off against cabinetmakers from across the country this week as he competes in a national contest.

Lewis Italiano is heading to Melbourne this week to take part in the WorldSkills Australia National Championships, the sole person to represent WA in cabinetmaking at the tournament.

He has been busy preparing for the competition over the past few months, which has ramped up in recent weeks.

“I have been practising both days of the weekend lately for the last month as well as a couple of days (during the week) when I can,” Mr Italiano said.

Participants go into the contest with little guidance of what they may encounter, making practice a difficult task.

As part of his preparation, Mr Italiano has both designed and made a number of wooden cabinets.

“A couple of them have been timed and I’ve been trying different things with each one of them,” he said.

“Overall, they’re getting better and better each month, but I’ve still got a couple of things I want to work on before (this) week.”

Mr Italiano was chosen as a State representative after competing in the South West heats at South Regional TAFE’s Bunbury campus in September last year.

He is more than 18 months into his three-and-a-half year apprenticeship with Dardanup’s Studio Milton while also attending South Regional TAFE’s Bunbury campus.

Business owner Paul Milton will be heading over to Melbourne to support the young competitor.

“I will try and give him a few pointers and help out when I can,” he said.

“We will have some debriefs after each day and during the middle of those days when we get the chance.”

Mr Milton has been helping Mr Italiano with his projects alongside giving advice from his time as a WorldSkills Australia competitor and mentoring another one of his workers who has previously represented Australia in the international competition.

“Lewis has done the work, he’s done the training, so it is more about explaining the situation and process, and how it is going to go because that sort of thing, it’s being out of your comfort zone,” he said.

Mr Milton noted he was most proud of the effort Mr Italiano had put into getting ready for the competition.

“Whatever happens in that competition is whatever happens, but he’s given himself every opportunity to do well and I can’t ask for anything more than that,” he said.