Hino Australia adds apprentice category to national technician contest with wildcard entry to 2027 final

Apprentices join the National Skills Contest for the first time

Hino Australia has added an apprentice category to its National Skills Contest, with a Hino Apprentice Challenge held for the first time this year, according to an announcement from the company distributed through Medianet. Under the format, two Apprentice Technicians earn a wildcard entry to the following National Skills Contest. ¹

The announcement quoted Gus Belanszky, Hino Australia's General Manager of Service and Customer Support, saying the Apprentice Challenge means two Apprentice Technicians will win a wildcard entry to the 2027 National Skills Contest. As a manufacturer release, the material reflects Hino Australia's own account of the program rather than independent reporting. ¹

Who won the 2026 Apprentice Challenge

Based on results across both the qualifying period and the final, Lucas Whitmore of Prestige Hino in Victoria and Andrew Bartolo of CMI Hino Adelaide in South Australia were crowned the inaugural apprentice winners and selected for the 2027 Hino National Skills Contest, to be held in November 2027. The announcement again attributed this to Mr Belanszky. ¹

Sixteen apprentices contested the final, drawn from dealers in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The finalist list named in the announcement includes Jordan Prinsloo (Barry Maney Hino), Tyler Tomkins (City Hino, Sydney), Joshua Millwood (CMI Hino Adelaide), Mikaela McGavin (Wideland Hino, Toowoomba) and Keiron Lally (WA Hino), among others. Contestants from the CMI Hino group, Prestige Hino and Sci-Fleet Hino were each represented by multiple finalists. ¹

How the contest is structured

The apprentice pathway followed a four-round qualifying period held over four months, after which the top 16 qualifiers took part in a three-day final at Hino Australia's National Training Centre in Sydney. The final combined training with practical assessments designed to test diagnostic and technical skills, according to the announcement. ¹

Hino described the National Skills Contest as held every second year, which the company says provides a robust qualifying period and allows a broad cross-section of dealership staff to take part. The company characterises the contest as one of the longest-running events of its kind in the Australian truck industry and frames it as serving to recognise technical expertise and to attract and retain parts, sales and service professionals across the dealer network. These are Hino's own statements about its workforce program; the announcement does not provide independent assessment of retention or customer-service effects. ¹

A further incentive announced alongside the contest is a Team 18 garage experience for the top scorer from each qualifying round, allowing them to work alongside the Hino-sponsored Supercars Championship team as it prepares its racecars ahead of the Adelaide round. ¹

International context: Hino skills contests across other markets

Skills contests for dealer staff are an established part of Hino's approach in several markets. Hino Motors Vietnam held its eleventh Hino TS Contest on 21–22 December 2025, with 84 competitors from 13 dealer teams nationwide, spanning sales, service, parts and customer-care categories plus a new Kaizen award, according to Hino Vietnam's own news page. ³

In the Philippines, Hino Motors Philippines hosted its 2025 National Skills Contest at the Hino Excellence Center in Canlubang, Laguna, under the theme of 3S synergy across sales, service and spare parts. Philippines Graphic reported the event's awards across technician, customer support, sales and parts categories, with Hino Balintawak taking the overall champion dealer honour in a year the company marked its 50th anniversary there. ⁴

Mexico's contest has a longer documented history: Automotive Transport reported in 2019 that Hino Motors Sales Mexico's Skill Contest drew 67 participants across service, parts and allied workshops, with winners representing Mexico at a Latin American contest and receiving a trip to Japan. The company's president at the time, Nozomu Harada, framed trained technicians as a competitive answer to independent workshops. ⁵

New Zealand provides a documented trans-Tasman link: Truckstops, a Hino dealer group, states on its careers page that it and Hino jointly run a nationwide annual skills competition for its technicians, with top performers flown to a national final in Auckland and winners having opportunities to compete in Australia and travel to Tokyo. That page dates from 2023 and describes earlier contests, so it should not be read as a current statement about the Australian program. ²

What remains unclear

The announcement establishes the apprentice category's launch, the 2026 finalists and the 2027 wildcard arrangement, but it does not quantify participation numbers for the qualifying rounds, specify the assessment scoring, or detail any prizes beyond the wildcard entries and the Team 18 garage experience. How the Australian contest compares in scale with the long-running international versions documented in Vietnam, the Philippines and Mexico is not addressed in the announcement, and no independent reporting on the 2026 final was located. Whether the Apprentice Challenge will continue beyond the 2027 contest is likewise not stated. ¹³⁴⁵