Palmerston North mechanic Gerrit van Schalkwyk comes second in Mitsubishi Global Service Skills Contest

McVerry Crawford Motor Group staff Gerrit van Schalkwyk and Emma Funnell represented New Zealand at the Mitsubishi Global Service Skills Contest in Tokyo. Photo / Judith Lacy

Gerrit van Schalkwyk thrives under pressure, an advantageous quality for competing in the Mitsubishi Global Service Skills Contest.

The Palmerston North workshop foreman came second in the technician category of the biennial competition, held in February in Tokyo.

It was hosted by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and attracted competitors from 25 countries.

“I get excited about pressure,” van Schalkwyk says. “It feels like I will do a lot better under pressure than without pressure as my thought process works in a pressured environment to think fast, to think a little bit out of the box.”

Van Schalkwyk has worked for the McVerry Crawford Motor Group for seven years. He moved to Palmerston North from Cape Town in South Africa, where he qualified as a mechanic.

He likes fixing things and enjoys the challenge of vehicle issues that are hard to fix. “The more difficult the better.”

As his career has progressed, van Schalkwyk has held different roles and worked at various locations since he started at McVerry Crawford.

Emma Funnell and Gerrit van Schalkwyk at the Mitsubishi Global Service Skills Contest in Tokyo on February 2. Van Schalkwyk came second in the technician category.

Standing on the podium at the Global Service Skills Contest was an unreal experience. “I’ve never had a medal in my life before.”

Visiting Japan had always been on the 31-year-old’s bucket list. “That’s one tick off the list.”

Coming from the big city of Cape Town he enjoyed the nightlife and big city buzz of Tokyo.

McVerry Crawford senior service adviser Emma Funnell came fourth in the service adviser category.

She also enjoyed Tokyo. “They are just constantly go, go, go. They are very organised about it though.”

A train station she visited was busy at midnight.

“It’s like an organised chaos. There’s people everywhere but they are all in order and everyone gets where they are going.”

Funnell’s job is organising after-sales service, warrants of fitness, and maintenance, plus providing customer care throughout the day. She has to be able to read a customer and respond appropriately, and enjoys the customer interaction and happy customers when their vehicle is returned.

Customer service workers need patience and understanding; if you have a short temper or don’t like dealing with people you are not going to last very long.

Funnell, 23, has worked at McVerry Crawford for a year and had a similar role for another dealership before that.

She says if you reach a goal create another and keep going, keep moving.

Van Schalkwyk’s advice: “Never give up, always try your best and you will succeed at anything you believe in.”

Funnell and van Schalkwyk won their respective categories at the Mitsubishi Motors National Skills Contest last October.

The next international competition will be in 2026 and they are both eligible to compete again. This year’s winners of the technician and service categories were from Taiwan.

Judith Lacy has been the editor of the Manawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001 and this is her second role editing a community paper.