September 2019

How does it feel to be Top Technician 2019? It feels good! It still hasn't sunk in. Apart from people congratulating me, and being in the local paper, it still doesn't feel real yet. It is going to take a while to sink in properly. Probably in a few months time, I am going to wake up and it is going to hit me that I have won. It is great, and it is nice to have my name on the title, and to have finally managed to get the top spot. I have been entering Top Technician for six years. In 2015 I made the top 20. In 2016 I made it to the semi final. Since then, I have been in the final three times in a row. Slowly but surely, I got better every year, and then managed to do the deed this year. It's been good! What was the reaction like back home where you work – at Robertson Gemini? Everybody was over the moon, and chuffed. I left and drove down on the Friday before the final, so on Thursday everybody wished me well. On Monday they were all dying to know what had gone on. They were all so pleased when they heard I had won on the Saturday. It was great for the company and myself. It is good exposure for them. As I said, I have been in the local paper so the name of the business is mentioned as well as mine so it's good for everybody. What do you think has got you this point, where you are Top Technician? Hard work I think. Every year I learned something new, I learned where I went wrong and where I could put mistakes right. It's just a case of strengthening weak points, year-on- year. When this year came around, I had managed to improve on everything, and it was enough to take the title. The experience is priceless. I believe you really need to do a couple to get into the swing of it and know what is going to come, and just get used to the whole thing. Top Technician is like nothing else that you can do. It is all about getting used to that different mentality in the way of working. What would you say to somebody thinking about taking part next year? If you want to see where your skills and your knowledge are at, then it is definitely worth entering. You are not going to know anything so you are going to find a question that is going to make you scratch your head and think "oh dear – I don't know this." This plants a seed though, and in my case, it makes me go away and research it and find out why something is the way it is. Once I had learned that, the next time there would be another question that stops you in your tracks. Getting all the knowledge, and improving what I already knew to solve these things made me a better technician. Plans for the future? Apart from winning Top Technician, earlier this year I passed my Mastertech accreditation. That was in March. That makes me a qualified IMI Master Technician. That was another big goal of mine. I would like to work up to Level 4 Hybrid, that is something that is coming down the line. That is my next goal - to become qualified with hybrids. After that I don't know. The world is my oyster as they say! 32 AFTERMARKET SEPTEMBER 2019 TOP TECHNICIAN 2019 Left to right, Helen Fospero, Neil Currie, Mark Ost from Snap-on www.aftermarketonline.net TOP TECHNICIAN WINNER: A KIND OF MAGIC Neil Currie was a finalist in Top Technician in 2017 and 2018. In 2019 he cracked it and became Top Technician 2019. We spoke to him shortly after the final. Was it a case of third time lucky, or was it his own special brand of mechanical magic that put him there?