Mercedes-Benz Korea has been investing heavily in training employees and young students as part of efforts to enhance customer service and technical expertise in the automotive maintenance field.

Since 2007, the Korean unit of the German luxury carmaker has organized “Korea TechMasters,” a biennial technical skills competition, while also running separate automotive training programs including Ausbildung and Automotive Electric Traineeship.

This year’s technical contest saw the participation of 969 service center employees from across the country. With rigorous screening, 40 participants were selected for the final tournament held at the Mercedes-Benz Korea Training Academy in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 14-15.

In line with the rising demand for electric vehicles, this year’s competition introduced new categories, namely the “EQ technician" and "EQ service adviser.”

With the common goal of delivering the highest customer satisfaction, the finalists competed and were evaluated for their competency across a total of 10 categories.

The final winners included 10 employees from Mercedes-Benz Korea service centers across the country.

Mercedes-Benz Korea has also nurtured some 410 trainees through its flagship education programs that train students in various fields including repair and maintenance services.

Introduced in 2017, Ausbildung allows its participants to join the German carmaker’s official dealerships. Under an industrial-academic partnership, the trainees undergo on-the-job training and the regular university education curriculum over three years.

Since 2006, Mercedes-Benz Korea has also been nurturing maintenance talent through the AMT program, which was rebranded last year as Automotive Electric Traineeship or AET, to provide tailored training for EV maintenance skills.

Mercedes-Benz Korea was founded in 2003 as a local subsidiary of the German auto giant. Currently, it operates 64 showrooms and 77 service centers across the nation.