This reality TV show is, in fact, the final of the Scania Top Team competition held last weekend in a rainy, Södertälje, just outside Stockholm in Sweden. This grand final is the summit of a year long competition programme for Scania’s service technicians and parts experts. At this summit was the final four, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Brazil.
Some 8,000 participants from around 60 countries took part in the early stages of the competition to develop their skills by combining training and teamwork to earn points and win the grand prize of €50,000 ($75,000). This final was be webcast live via Scania Group’s YouTube page as well as on the corporate website.
The Scania Top Team concept was developed to encourage technicians to continually enhance their skills, knowledge, professionalism and teamwork in Scania’s workshops all over the world. The very best teams have advanced from regional finals to qualify for the final stage. The teams who qualified for the event in Södertälje, were Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Denmark, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
As part of Scania’s continuous improvement philosophy, Scania Top Team has developed from a national training event 26 years ago into today’s global training programme. This year’s edition is the ninth such event at an international level, and has attracted more countries and participants than ever before.
“The ultimate goal for Scania workshops worldwide is to provide services that support customers’ business,” says Christian Levin, Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations at Scania. “This in turn requires a highly proficient service staff. Scania Top Team is a fantastic way of celebrating the brains, technological skills and teamwork that characterise the people who work in the front line every day.”
Who won? Now that would be telling, but they come from the Southern Hemisphere and they speak English!