The winners of this year’s Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE) Skills Challenge have been announced at a ceremony at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull.
Fifty bus and coach technicians and apprentices in the UK and Ireland competed for the awards in a series of mechanical, electrical and bodywork tasks. Teams from Abellio, Arriva, FirstGroup, Go-Ahead London, Go South Coast, London United Buses, Metroline, Tower Transit, Translink, and trentbarton took part in this year’s event.
The top prize – the IRTE Outstanding Team Award, given to the highest scoring team – was won by Andrew Howie, Tim Laws-Chapman and Ray Silcox from FirstGroup.
The Outstanding Team Award went to FirstGroup’s Andrew Howie, Tim Laws-Chapman and Ray Silcox
Apprentice mechanic Pamela Chapman from Arriva received a new award, the Philip Margrave Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement. It is presented to the individual who most embodies the spirit of the IRTE Skills Challenge – of engineering excellence, and commitment to their profession. Pamela also walked away with three other awards, for Mechanical Apprentice and Electrical and the Mechanical Award (with team-mate Tom King) as well as a runners-up prize for the DVSA Inspection Apprentice Award.
The IRTE Skills Challenge finds the best bus and coach technicians and apprentices in the UK and Ireland by testing their skills and knowledge in a series of mechanical, electrical and bodywork tasks. Since it was founded in 2011, the event has been embraced by operators as a way of benchmarking the skills of their technicians, and celebrating excellence in engineering training and development.
Arriva UK Bus Engineering Development Manager Lloyd Mason, who has led winning contestants from Arriva since the event was founded in 2011, said, “The IRTE Skills Challenge is now an established event in the bus and coach calendar, and encourages engineers to showcase their abilities and perform to the highest level.”
Keynote speaker for the ceremony Sir Moir Lockhead OBE, patron of the Society of Operations Engineers, the umbrella organisation of IRTE, said, “It has been an honour to see the commitment of operators, technicians and apprentices in this year’s competition – commitment that is vital to the success of the UK’s road transport industry. This event rewards not only those individuals who are committed to their profession, but also the operators who strive to ensure their people are trained to the highest standards. Through initiatives like this, IRTE aims to encourage safety, compliance and development in road transport.”
