Young bus engineers are the country’s best

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 2 November 2021

Young engineers at trentbarton have scooped the top prize in a national bus industry skills challenge. One of the team also brought home individual glory as the best bodywork apprentice in the UK.

Three apprentices – Oscar Jenkins, Kyle Sandford and Edward Batchelor – were crowned the UK’s best apprentice team at the 10th anniversary Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE) Skills Challenge.

They beat off competition from some of the biggest names in UK passenger transport, including Arriva, Stagecoach and National Express. The ceremony took place at Williams Formula 1 in Oxford.

Oscar also came out on top in the Body Apprentice Award, with Kyle named runner up in the Mechanical Apprentice category. Oscar’s timed challenges included a welded sill section and fibreglass panel repairs.

Skills Challenge veteran Harry Burns was also runner up in the Mechanical Skilled Engineer Award, three years after being part of the triumphant trentbarton team in the 2018 IRTE Skills Challenge.

All three apprentices live in Derby. Kyle, 19, and Edward, 21, both work for trentbarton at Derby. Oscar, 22, works at the company’s Engineering Support Unit in Heanor.

Oscar, who last month also won Apprentice of the Year at trentbarton’s 2020-21 really good service awards, said:

“I was pleased to win, and surprised. They are the kinds of tasks we do every day at work but with the added pressure of a time limit.

“Winning as a team was even nicer because we could celebrate as a team. We all came through our apprenticeships together.”

trentbarton engineering manager Wayne Potter said:

“All the individual achievements were very special and to win the overall best apprentice title is a fantastic achievement by the lads.

“It shows trentbarton can compete with and even outperform very respected operators across the country. I am super proud of the lads.”

IRTE chief executive Bruce McGill said:

“There is no better place to see how the industry is progressing through its apprentices and technicians than at the IRTE Skills Challenge. Congratulations to our winners and runners up, and to all those who took part.”

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