The North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) held their annual New Talent Awards on the 26th February 2015 recognising and rewarding the achievements of young apprentices and graduates from the North West of England’s aerospace and defence industry.
The ceremony, held at the prestigious Imperial War Museum, Manchester, saw awards handed out to the region’s best young talent, along with the training providers and companies the work for. This year, the award for the North West’s Best Aerospace & Defence Apprentice, along with the £1000 prize kindly sponsored by recruitment consultants Neville Gee, went to Graham Slinger from BAE Systems.
The runner-up prize, sponsored by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), was awarded to Thomas Worswick also from BAE Systems. Amy Owen from MDBA Missile Systems carried off the “One to Watch” trophy, sponsored by Nelson and Colne College, while BAE Systems Shared Services scooped the training provider prize sponsored by Preston’s College.
The Innovation Award, sponsored by The Hyde Group, was new for the 2014 awards and went to Luke McKinlay from RLC. 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 and university students together to compete head-to-head in a series of challenges to test their negotiation, innovation, communication and presenting skills. Eight teams of young people from North West universities and aerospace businesses competed for the title at Preston’s College earlier in February.
The University of Central Lancashire were revealed as the winners and presented with £1,500 prize money by NWAA and a trophy sponsored by Wincanton. Two Professional Excellence awards of £200, sponsored by The Isle of Man Aerospace Cluster, were presented to Alex Todd from Paradigm Precision Engineering and Oliver Cowley-Topping from Magellan Aerospace who both displayed outstanding leadership and performance during the Business University Challenge.
David Bailey, Chief Executive Officer 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 recognize 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.”
IMAGE Winner of the North West’s Best Aerospace & Defence Apprentice Award, Graham Slinger of BAE Systems.
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