Youngsters vie for aerospace title

Aerospace and defence companies have teamed up with universities to challenge young employees and students in 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 at Preston’s College and saw eight teams of three go head to head in a series of technical challenges designed to test their communication, negotiation, problem solving, innovation and presentation skills.

The teams were judged by professionals including Sheila Lowe from the Isle Of Man Department Of Economic Development, Helen Heggie of STEM First and Ian Blades of the North West Aerospace Alliance.

The top three scoring teams on the day were Hycrome, Safran Aircelle and the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and all three teams have been invited to attend NWAA’s prestigious New Talent Awards ceremony taking place on Thursday the 26th February, where the winning team will be revealed and presented with £1,500 prize money and a winners trophy. David Baliey, chief executive of NWAA, said: “It was great to see so many teams taking part on the day and in such a professional manner. 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."