The ceremony, held at the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, saw apprentices, employers, training provider’s and mentors from across the North West Aerospace industry enjoy a three course dinner and speeches from the 2013 winner of the Best North West Aerospace & Defence Apprentice award Pavandeep Bhogal, BAE Systems, Aviator & Adventure Bird in a Bi-Plane Tracey Curtis-Taylor and Nick Colosimo, strategy & planning manager, future capabilities BAE Systems.
This year, following fierce 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 Daniel Hogg from BAE Systems. The runner-up prize, sponsored by the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology), was awarded to Joanne Gregory from Paradigm Precision.
Abigail Parkinson from Kaman UK carried off the “One to Watch” trophy, sponsored by Preston’s College, while BAE Systems scooped the Employer & Training Provider prize sponsored by Hyde Aero Products.
The Innovation Award, sponsored by Training 2000, went to Tamara Astley from BAE Systems. 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.
12 teams of young people from North West universities, colleges and aerospace businesses competed for the title at Preston’s College in January. MBDA Missile Systems were revealed as the winning team and presented with £1,500 prize money by Royal Aeronautical Society and a trophy sponsored by Wincanton Two Professional Excellence awards and prize money of £200, sponsored by Safran Nacelles, were presented to Georgia Kelsall from BAE Systems and Ellen Madden from MBDA Missile Systems who both displayed outstanding leadership and performance during the Business University Challenge.
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 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.