Two Irish ŠKODA employees have placed in the top 10 of their categories of the ŠKODA Challenge Competition which took place in Budapest recently.

Cavan native Darragh Smith was placed 8th in the Parts Manager Category of the International Finals of the ŠKODA Challenge. Darragh started in Brady’s ŠKODA, Cavan four years ago, training as an apprentice technician before moving to the Parts Department in September 2016.

Paul Bruton from Castlelyons, Cork placed 7th of his category, Diagnostic Technician. Paul, is a Diagnostic Technician with over 22 years’ experience, all of which have been spent with Noel Deasy ŠKODA in Cork.

In total there were six ŠKODA employees from across the country who competed in the seventh international finals of the ŠKODA Challenge, the annual ŠKODA skills competition. The ŠKODA Challenge has become a prestigious benchmark for measuring the qualities of the best employees in the global ŠKODA service network and includes several different categories: Sales Executive, Service Advisor; Service Technician; Diagnostic Technician and Parts Manager.

Team ŠKODA Ireland competed against 35 countries in the International Finals in Hungary over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

Commenting on the results of the ŠKODA Challenge, David Rave, Head of Aftersales at ŠKODA Ireland, said, “We were delighted to have six extremely motivated and talented individuals on this year’s Team ŠKODA Ireland and we are extremely proud of how they performed and represented us, demonstrating the high level of service we have to offer in Ireland. In particular I would like to congratulate Paul and Darragh on finishing in the top ten of their categories.”