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Asimo congratulates Honda award winners and graduates

9th November 2007 Print
Honda (UK)’s training centre, the Honda Institute, has enjoyed a busy period with the final of its annual Honda Awards for Excellence, as well as the latest apprentice graduations.

ASIMO – Honda’s unique humanoid robot – was on hand to congratulate both winners and graduates gathered at the Honda Institute in Colnbrook, near Slough in Berkshire.

The Honda Institute is a world-class training facility, providing personal development programmes for the 10,000 people within Honda (UK)’s three franchised networks of cars, motorcycles and power equipment.

All the graduates have completed a two to three-year Apprenticeship Programme, a scheme accredited by both City & Guilds and Automotive Skills. This apprenticeship includes a City & Guilds level 2 & 3 qualification.

October proved to be the high-point of the year so far for the Institute, when graduation for 87 apprentices and the Honda Awards for Excellence final were held on the same day. The two graduation days and the Awards were rolled into a one-day event to fit with ASIMO’s busy schedule.

The Honda Awards for Excellence are open to any employee in the dealer network. Categories this year were: Technician of the Year, Junior Car Technician of the Year, Sales Executive of the Year, Customer Service Advisor of the Year, Honda Apprentice of the Year and The Power of Dreams Award, which is a new category for 2007.

Applicants had to fill out a questionnaire from which the finalists were selected. The finalists were invited to the Honda Institute for the competition challenge to find the winners in each class. Each finalist won a Red Letter Day for being selected, while the winners in each division and the overall winners won a number of top prizes including Snap-On tools and tool sets, Honda travel bags and HP iPAQ pocket PCs along with TomTom navigation kits.

Geoff Matthews, Head of the Honda Institute said: “For a number of years now we have demonstrated that high-quality and effective training has real and tangible benefits for our franchised businesses. Meanwhile, our Honda Awards for Excellence is a fitting way to show how people can grow in their franchised network, adding experience from various daily challenges within the dealership to build upon the work which is so often started right here at the Institute.”

The winners were:
Car Technician of the Year – Neil Armstrong from Graeme P Chatham Honda
Motorcycle Technician of the Year – Lee Stace from J2 Honda
Power Equipment Technician of the Year – Iain Marshall from Reekie Stirling Honda
Overall Technician of the Year – Lee Stace
Junior Technician of the Year – Robert Woolford from Lindhill Honda
Car Customer Advisor of the Year – Alison Hope, Ryland Honda
Motorcycle Customer Advisor of the Year – Julian Wade, Miles Kingsport Ltd
Power Equipment Customer Advisor of the Year – Yvette Hope, from Mike Hope of Wooler
Overall Customer Advisor of the Year – Alison Hope
Car Sales Person of the Year – Richard Turner, deVries Honda
Motorcycle Sales Person of the Year – Guy R Steel, Chiswick Honda
Power Equipment Sales Person of the Year – John Milledge, G&M Motors
Overall Sales Person of the Year 2007 – John Milledge
The Power of Dreams Award – Nick Bagnall, Speedwell Honda
Apprentice of the Year – Danny Glover, Pennine Honda

The Power of Dreams winner, Nick Bagnall, explained to the judges that his ‘dream’ was to turn an average dealership into ‘The Best Retailer in Town’. Through hard work and innovative ideas over a number of years Nick helped Speedwell Honda be just that, scooping him this new award.

The Senior and Junior technician winners from this year – Neil Armstrong and Robert Woolford – will join last year’s Parts Advisor winner – Wayne Nippard – to represent Honda (UK) in the European After Sales challenge which will be held in Amsterdam on 23-25 November.