An employee of Kubota UK has scooped the top award at the global Kubota Skills Contest in Japan, an event that tests the technical expertise of its staff worldwide.

The two-day event was held at Kubota's global headquarters in Japan and was attended by Kubota Service Engineers from America, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK.

The assessment criteria for the contest consisted of a 30-minute written assessment as well as a 90-minute practical challenge, with competitors tasked with diagnosing and fixing five faults on a Kubota M110GX-II tractor.

Steve Mead, Product Support Engineer for Kubota UK with over 20 year's experience, was crowned the overall winner with the judges citing the methodology and processes used to remedy the faults set him apart from the other competitors.

Steve commented: "The global Kubota Skills Contest brings together some of Kubota's best service engineers, so to be judged as the overall best performer across both the written and practical assessments is something I'm very proud of.

"The opportunity to travel to Japan has been a valuable experience. The approach and the process to finding faults is very important and being able to gain insight into how others from the global Kubota community carry out their maintenance and service practices is something I will carry forward into the training I provide to dealers."

Such was the success of the event that Kubota will be launching the National Dealer Skills Competition in 2016, a UK-specific event that will widen the entry to include service engineers working at dealerships across Kubota's UK network.

Dave Roberts, Managing Director of Kubota UK, commented: "The Kubota Skills competition has long been an annual fixture in Japan and to be crowned the overall winner is a big achievement. We are delighted that Steve has represented Kubota UK so well in this competition and this award win is a testament to his hard work and the meticulous nature he applies to his role as product support engineer."

By 2018, it is hoped that all Kubota companies worldwide will compete in a 'World Cup' contest with two 'Global Technical Champions' emerging.