Double national award for budding engineer

A Graham Engineering employee and former Training 2000 apprentice has been named the UK Nuclear Apprentice of the Year and the Nuclear Supply Chain Apprentice of the Year at a national awards ceremony.

Twenty three year-old Andrew Hudson, from Burnley, was awarded both of the accolades at the UK Nuclear Skills Awards ceremony, held at the Mercure Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester.

Andrew, who completed an advanced engineering apprenticeship in science, engineering and manufacturing technologies at Training 2000, is now in his first year at Manchester Metropolitan University studying a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering.

The national UK Nuclear Skills Awards, a collaborative event organised by the National Skills Academy Nuclear and Cogent SSC, was attended by more than 450 training providers and employers from the industry to celebrate the high achievements of learners who have completed qualifications in the sector.

“I am absolutely thrilled to receive both these awards. I never expected to win anything, so to be awarded Nuclear Supply Chain and Nuclear Apprentice of the year is an amazing achievement,” he said.

“Nuclear is quite a specialist area and I have a keen interest in robotics especially, which has resulted in me becoming the lead programmer at Graham Engineering. I would like to thank Training 2000 for all the help and support throughout my Apprenticeship as it gave me the confidence, skills and knowledge I needed to progress in my chosen career.”

Graham Engineering managing director Ian Bannister said: “We are obviously delighted for Andrew and as a business we will continue to support him in his academic career in the future.“Andrew’s success underpins the huge skill base across the SME aspect of the nuclear supply chain, and demonstrates the high technical capability that is available to be utilised to train our new generation engineers.”