Universities, Colleges and Aerospace and Defence companies from the North West of England were invited to submit their best young employees and students into the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) Business University Challenge. The challenge is one of two award categories for the NWAA’s New Talent Awards, which are designed to recognise and reward the emerging young talent in the North West of England’s Aerospace and Defence sector.
The challenge took place on Wednesday the 25thof January, at Preston’s College and saw 12 teams of 3 go head to head in a series of practical challenges designed to test their communication, negotiation, problem solving, innovation and presentation skills.
The teams were judged by four industry professionals including Mark Wood, Employer Support Manager NW, Engineering UK, Rosalind Azouzi, Head of Skills and Careers, Royal Aeronautical Society, Gina Deehan, Branch Manager, Ideal Recruit Ltd and Ian Blades, NATEP Regional Technology Manager, North West Aerospace Alliance.
Competition was fierce and the leader board changed with every challenge, so close were the results that there are four teams, due to a dead heat between two of them, within the top three scoring places at the end of the day’s activities. These teams were Safran Nacelles, MBDA Missile Systems Ltd, BAE Systems Ltd and Hycrome Aerospace Ltd, and all four teams have been invited to attend the prestigious New Talent Awards ceremony taking place on Thursday the 2nd March at the Imperial War Museum North, in Manchester, where the winning team will be revealed and presented with £1,500 prize money and a winner’s trophy.
In addition, two individuals were selected for showing Outstanding Professional Excellence throughout the day. The winners were Ellen Madden fromMBDA Missile Systems Ltd and Georgia Kelsall from BAE Systems Ltd, both are invited to the Awards Ceremony to collect their trophies and individual prize money.
David Bailey, Chief Executive at NWAA, said: “I have been very impressed with the professionalism displayed by the teams taking part in this year’s event. Everyone that took part has been a credit to their organisation. The teams get better and the competition gets stronger with each year that NWAA holds this event. I’m sure that the young people taking part today will be the leaders of our aerospace and defense sector in the future”.
