A Stone based apprentice has been honoured as the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) has announced the winners of its annual Apprentice and Technician of the Year Awards.
The awards, which recognise individuals who have made exceptional engineering contributions to their profession or operational area, have named local company ABB’s apprentice Josh Barber as the winner of the Apprentice of the Year award. Josh won the accolade for his outstanding work on a client’s wind farm grid connection project, and was one of a shortlist of three people.
His cost-saving redesign for a supplies pillar-marshalling kiosk layout to improve safety, efficiency and reduce installation errors won approval from senior engineers, his supervisors and ABB’s customers, and has now been adopted by the company as standard.
Josh works for ABB Ltd as an Apprentice Circuit Engineer, and has a HNC and BTEC Level 3 with double distinction* in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He supports ABB’s Schools Support Programme, coordinates industry days and volunteers at events and career days, and has given presentations on ABB’s work to scholars, students, the local community and MPs.
Josh’s prize for the award was a trophy, certificate, £1,000 cash and two years’ free IET membership.
IET President Jeremy Watson CBE said: “This is a fantastic achievement and Josh should be very proud to win this award against strong competition in his category. The standard of this year’s entries was higher than ever, making the judging extremely difficult. All the IET Apprentice and Technician Award finalists demonstrated skills and knowledge through their work that went far beyond their role. They have taken on challenging tasks and through innovation and determination to succeed have brought real benefits to their companies.”
This year, the IET’s Achievement Awards and Scholarships programme, which the Apprentice & Technician Awards are part of, has provided over £1million in awards, prizes and scholarships to celebrate excellence and research in the sector and encourage the next generation of engineers and technicians.
Josh commented:“It means so much to win this award and get recognition from the Institution of Engineering and Technology for my work. I can honestly say I wouldn’t have achieved this without the support from ABB who have given me the opportunity and the confidence to deliver the work which won the award. Winning this award goes to show what you can achieve as an apprentice, learning engineering skills within a business and making a difference to a business.”
Find out more about the Achievement Awards here: www.theiet.org/achievement.
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1 comment
Aly Davidson
Just brilliant! Well done Josh.