A Master Technician from a Nissan dealership in South West Wales is off to Paris next week, to test his skills against fellow professionals from all over Europe.
Lewis Thomas, who works at Pembroke Motor Services (PMS) in Haverfordwest, is looking forward to the trip after seeing off competition from 11 other Nissan technicians at the UK round of NISTEC 2023, held recently in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
His success means he’ll be taking part in the European finals in Paris next week, with the possibility of a trip to Japan later in the year.
NISTEC is a competition which operates in Nissan markets all around the world. Its aim is to recognise the skills of talented Master Technicians and keep levels of customer satisfaction high.
In Europe, each participating country has the opportunity to select one technician from its dealership network to take part in the Paris finals.
At the UK event, 12 competitors were chosen to complete practical, real-world tests after having undergone an online assessment. More than 100 Master Technicians from the UK’s Nissan network were involved at that point – making Lewis’s achievement even more impressive.
Six competitors battled it out on each day of the Doncaster event. The assessment consisted of three tasks: a maintenance task, an electrical task and a vehicle data record task. The jobs were done on Nissan Jukes and the participants had 40 minutes to complete each one.
John Murphy, Nissan Technical Lead Trainer, commented: “The skill level was really balanced, with different competitors showing different strengths.
Exciting opportunities
‘‘With this being the first competition since 2018, it’s a big step that we can take to deliver exciting opportunities to the dealer network population, with the hope of inspiring our next, and current, generation of Master Technicians to enter the next competition in 2025.
‘‘I’m sure our UK winner, Lewis, will do himself, his dealership, and Nissan proud in Paris.”
Nick Phillips, Service Manager at PMS, said: ‘‘It goes without saying that all of us are hugely proud of Lewis’s achievements and delighted he has the opportunity to go further in this year’s NISTEC competition. He is an incredibly valuable member of the team here and deserves to do well.’’
Lewis, who has worked at PMS for almost seven years, said he felt ”excited and extremely privileged” to be representing the UK at this year’s European NISTEC finals.