plane talk

NWAA NEWS
Winners 2015
Emerging new
Aerospace
Talent Honoured
at NWAA
Awards
The North West Aerospace Alliance
(NWAA) held their annual New
Talent Awards on the 3rd March
2016 recognising and rewarding the
achievements of young apprentices
and emerging talent from the North
West of England’s aerospace and
defence industry.
The first of the evenings Guest
Speakers, Ryan Worthington from
Rolls Royce; was a previous winner of
the One to Watch award and spoke
about how the confidence gained from
entering the NTA’s had encouraged
him to enterthe UK World Skills
National Final and come away with
the Gold Medal in CNC.
Wg Cdr Martin Higgins Officer
Commanding of the Royal Air Force
Aerobatic team, gave an inspiring
speech about the team work required
by the whole team to deliver the
renown Red Arrow display. He
encouraged the importance of
innovation especially when dealing
with 40 year old planes.
to the region’s best young talent. The
WINNER of this years award for the
North West’s Best Aerospace
& Defence Apprentice, along with the
£1000 prize kindly sponsored by
recruitment consultants Neville Gee,
was Aiva Melngaile from Safran
Aircelle. The runner-up prize,
sponsored by the IET (Institute
of Engineering and Technology), was
awarded to Megan Wilcock from
Rolls Royce.
Jack Stezaker from BAE Systems
carried off the One to Watch trophy,
sponsored by AGP ESP (Employer
Skills Programmes), while Paradigm
Precision Ltd scooped the Employer
& Training Provider prize sponsored by
Preston’s College.
The Innovation Award, sponsored by
Hyde Group, went to Alex Todd
from Paradigm Precision Ltd. 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.
Twelve teams of young people from
North West universities, colleges and
aerospace businesses competed for
the title at Preston’s College in January.
Hycrome Europe Ltd were revealed
as the winning team and presented with
£1,500 prize money sponsored by
the Royal Aeronautical Society and a
trophy presented by Wincanton. Two
Professional Excellence awards, each
with £200 prize money and sponsored
by Safran Aircelle, were presented
to Harry Ingle from Hycrome
Europe Ltd and Ashley Howard
from Isle of Man College of
Further & Higher Education who
both displayed outstanding leadership
and performance during the Business
UniversityChallenge.
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 continue to
recognise and reward the achievements
of the 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.”
The ceremony, held at the prestigious
Imperial War Museum North,
Manchester; saw awards handed out
@NWAerospace
plane talk spring 2016
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