Young apprentices are UK champions
A team of young engineers from canmaking equipment manufacturer CarnaudMetalbox Engineering (CMB Engineering) have won first prize in the Manufacturing Team Challenge category at the national WorldSkills UK competition.
The team were recognised for the design and production of a solar powered rubbish bin, capable of crushing cans and bottles. The winning engineers (pictured left to right) are Andrew Maguire, George Moffat and Daniel Gebhard and come from the company’s Shipley headquarters. The team will now go on to represent the UK in the world competition due to be held in Leipzig, Germany in July this year.
Andrew Wilkinson, a mechanical engineer with CMB Engineering who represented the company in the 2009 Worldskills UK competition, mentored this year’s team. All three members have been trained by CMB Engineering’s long-running apprenticeship program, which centres around a four-year programme of either electrical or mechanical engineering and includes formal study at Bradford College as well as practical experience working alongside the company’s professional engineering teams.
The win demonstrates the company’s highly advanced engineering skills, technical expertise and commitment to developing the engineers and beverage canmakers of tomorrow, according to Jim Cozier general manager at CMB Engineering.
He said: “This award is a true testament to the value of apprenticeship schemes like the one we are proud to run at CMB Engineering. We are constantly striving to drive innovation and knowledge sharing within the canmaking industry, and our young team’s success shows just what an impact apprenticeship schemes can have in terms of developing invaluable design and manufacturing skills. Not only did our engineers manufacture all three units, including surprise projects, nearly three hours faster than the competition, but their design for the machines was lighter, more cost effective and efficient – all key criteria of the competition.”
At the end of the apprenticeship engineers who graduate receive a level three National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) and a higher national certificate in mechanical or electrical engineering, they can then work towards a Bachelor of Engineering Degree.
For more information about the competition click here.
By Luke Walsh
