After a COVID-caused hiatus, the Yamaha Technical Academy (YTA) mechanic training and education program has returned. The goal is to create a single global standard in order to ensure customers get the same high-quality service at any Yamaha dealership around the world. There are some 34,000 YTA-trained and certified mechanics worldwide, and the Yamaha World Technician Grand Prix (WTGP) is the biennial contest where the top technicians compete against their counterparts from around the world.
“As a competition expressly for motorcycle technicians, the WTGP has the industry’s longest history and those that qualify for it consider it quite an honor,” explains Yukio Tanaka, who is charged with organizing the event. However, the global pandemic put a hold on running the competition and it has been postponed or canceled since 2018, resulting in a five-year hiatus. Still, Yamaha technicians around the world have continued to hone their skills through their everyday work and online YTA training sessions during that gap period. Plus, new national champions were crowned in countries that were able to hold NTGPs during the pandemic.
“These national champions rightfully won their tickets to the WTGP, yet were unable to compete against their colleagues from around the world,” says Tanaka. “So we invited them to Japan in October this year to properly congratulate them on their achievement at an awards ceremony.” The national champions were handed trophies from President Yoshihiro Hidaka himself and he thanked them for their daily efforts to take care of customers’ motorcycles.
