Toyota Skills Contest 2025 highlights the people power behind the brand

KUALA LUMPUR: UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) has wrapped up its annual Toyota Skills Contest 2025, a long-running initiative that celebrates the people who keep the brand’s reputation for quality alive.

The contest, themed “Customer First, Quality First,” brought together Toyota’s aftersales, technical and sales staff from across Malaysia, alongside representatives from the Ministry of Education, MARA, and private institutions.

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The event underlines a simple fact: Toyota’s long-term success isn’t just about cars, but about the people who build, sell, and service them.

“People are at the heart of everything we do,” said Datuk Ravindran K., President of UMW Toyota Motor. “Toyota’s long-term success has always been built on the skills, values and pride of its people. Through the Toyota Skills Contest, we celebrate excellence and invest in the future of Malaysia’s mobility ecosystem. As we move towards an era defined by electrification, digitalisation and innovation, our goal is to empower a generation of professionals who can uphold the spirit of Kaizen and drive progress with integrity, capability and compassion. Ultimately, our aspiration is to be ‘Best in Town’, a company that earns trust not through scale or sales, but through the genuine care, quality, and pride that define every interaction with our customers and communities.”

Recognising skill across the board

The 2025 contest featured nine individual categories and one Best Team Award, covering a wide range of disciplines — from technical expertise to customer relations. The categories included Customer Relations, GS Technician Diagnosis, GS Technician Maintenance and Repair, GS Service Advisor, Parts Assistant, Sales Advisor, Admin Assistant, Workshop Controller, and B&P Service Advisor.

Laser Motor PJ Sdn Bhd took home the Best Team Award, earning RM20,000 for their strong teamwork and consistent delivery of customer-first service. In total, UMW Toyota Motor handed out RM155,000 in cash prizes to top-performing individuals and teams.

The competition remains a reflection of Toyota’s long-standing philosophies — Customer First and Quality First — both rooted in the Five Main Principles of Toyoda. These principles, particularly Kaizen (continuous improvement) and Genchi Genbutsu (on-site problem-solving), are ingrained in Toyota’s culture and continue to guide how its people approach everyday challenges.

For many participants, the contest marks a milestone in their professional journey. Several of them started through the Toyota Technical Education Programme (T-TEP), a collaboration between UMW Toyota Motor and Malaysia’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.

Since its introduction in 1991, T-TEP has produced over 7,000 graduates through 25 partner institutions nationwide, providing students with both theoretical and hands-on automotive training that meets global industry standards.

The top performers from this year’s national contest will represent Malaysia at regional Toyota Skills Competitions, continuing the brand’s tradition of benchmarking Malaysian talent against the best in ASEAN.

People first, always the Toyota way

Toyota has long believed in the idea of “making people before making cars”, a philosophy that still shapes its approach to business. Rather than focusing purely on sales, Toyota continues to build its future by developing people who embody its values of precision, discipline, and care.

That mindset sits at the core of its “Best in Town” aspiration not to be the biggest car company, but the one that customers trust most, whether in the showroom, service centre, or classroom. 

Through efforts like the Toyota Skills Contest and the T-TEP programme, UMW Toyota Motor continues to invest in Malaysia’s human capital — a reminder that behind every Toyota on the road, there’s someone who has spent years mastering the craft to keep it running right.

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