The North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) held the 18th NWAA New Talent Awards on the 1st March 2018, recognising and rewarding the achievements of young apprentices and trainees from the North West of England’s aerospace and defence industry.
The ceremony, held at the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, saw apprentices, employers, training providers and mentors from across the North West aerospace industry battling the elements to enjoy a three course dinner and speeches from the 2015 winner of the best north west aerospace & defence apprentice award Aiva MeIngaile, Safran Nacelles and Dr Priyanka Dhopade, senior research associate at the Oxford Thermofluids Institute. Dhopade was also recently chosen by the Women’s Engineering Society as one of 2017’s Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35.
This year, following strong competition and entries from organisations across the North West and Isle of Man, saw the overall winner of the award of North West’s best aerospace & defence apprentice, along with the £1000 prize sponsored by recruitment consultants Ideal Recruit going to Josh Lavin from Paradigm Precision.
In a change to the awards, and to acknowledge that apprenticeships are evolving by enabling apprentices to not only achieve a level 3 standard, but now support training up to Masters and PHD level, two new awards were introduced: aerospace engineering technician and aerospace engineer. The winners of these two inaugural awards, sponsored by the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology which included a cheque for £250 each, were Sam Williams, Magellan Aerospace and Amy Wolstencroft, Safran Nacelles respectively.
Salima Bana from BAE Systems carried off the “one to watch” trophy, sponsored by Preston’s College, while Themis, Burnley College scooped the employer & training provider prize sponsored by Hyde Aero Products.
The Innovation Award, sponsored by Burnley College, went to Dalton Green from the Hyde Group. This award is about recognising an individual who through their innovative thinking and outstanding engineering skills has brought successful change to the business.
NWAA’s business university challenge aims to bring business apprentices, university and college students together to compete head-to-head in a series of challenges to test their negotiation, innovation, communication and presenting skills.
During the ceremony Safran Nacelles were revealed as the winning team and presented with £1,500 prize money by Royal Aeronautical Society and a trophy sponsored by Wincanton.
Candidates who displayed outstanding leadership and performance during the business university challenge were identified by the judges, and two outstanding professional excellence awards and prize money of £200, sponsored by Safran Nacelles, were presented to Meghan Adamson, MBDA Missile Systems and Mohammed Rashid, from University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). Due to the exceptional high calibre of individuals, the judges really couldn’t decide between three candidates so NWAA sponsored a third outstanding professional award which was presented to Milli Sagar, Safran Nacelles.
David Bailey, CEO at NWAA, said: “The New Talent Awards has become a key event for the North West’s aerospace and defence sector. It is important that we continue to recognise and reward the achievements of the talent emerging in our industry. It is hugely important to our industry that we increase the numbers of talented young people into apprenticeships to plug the skills gap that threatens our ability to achieve the growth the aerospace market is experiencing.