Apprentices from MOD Abbey Wood are celebrating after being named as winners of this year’s annual Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Tom Nevard Memorial Competition.

The weeklong residential competition saw 60 Ministry of Defence and wider Civil Service apprentices take part in challenges to build and design defence-related products, develop core competences and encourage teamwork.

Alongside participants from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA), Defence Munitions Gosport, Defence Munitions Beith and Defence Electronics Components Agency (Deca), 30 Defence Equipment & Support apprentices from Abbey Wood took part, with DE&S CEO Andy Start also in attendance.

This year’s competition included group and individual engineering challenges and a non-engineering task. The initiative was open to apprentices on the DE&S ABW Corporate Service Group (CSG) Degree, Digital Degree, Finance and Accounting (F&A), Information Management and Information Technology (IM&IT) and Project Delivery courses.

This year’s winners are:

• Electrical Award: Louis Holland (Abbey Wood)
• Non-engineering Award: Jazmine Sage (Abbey Wood)
• Group Award: Paul Jamieson (Beith), Caleb Landon (Sealand), Gabriella Shepherd (Abbey Wood) and Kieran Williams (Abbey Wood), Joe Westing (Abbey Wood) and Oliver Ellis (Gosport)
• CEO Award: Martin Sousa (Abbey Wood) and Tamsin Hoult (Abbey Wood)
• Mechanical Award: Henry Fleck (Abbey Wood) and Georgia Raynor-Smith (Abbey Wood)

Phil Rotherham, Engineering Degree Apprenticeship Technical Lead said: “Once again, the Tom Nevard Memorial Competition has returned to Shrivenham and with competitors from all parts of the UK it is now bigger than ever. The Defence College of Military Capability Integration (DCMCI) and the equipment it holds really is the perfect back drop to this event and our apprentices always go away inspired and re-energised.”

Participants received a weeklong Introduction to Engineering series of learning sessions and had the chance to build and design an engineering-based project, with tasks centered around testing their craftsmanship and creativity.

Apprentice Gabriella Shepherd from DE&S said: “I really enjoyed the freedom of creativity and innovation given to us within the challenge, and it provided me with valuable communication navigating through the task as a team.”

The Tom Nevard Memorial Competition was first held in 1952, in memory of the assistant secretary of the Labour Branch of the Ministry of Supply to test the craftsmanship of apprentices. Initially held in Glasgow, it moved to the Defence Academy in 2014 where it has become an annual event, delivered as a joint MOD and contractor initiative.

Apprentice Georgia Raynor-Smith from DE&S added: “The Tom Nevard competition was a really fun week meeting new apprentices and undertaking activities that involved a lot of problem solving and thinking. It was a great opportunity to get hands on experience and learning some new skills in the workshops.”

We spoke to Mechanical Award winners Henry and Georgia as they fired their trebuchet and talked about the in-depth planning to ensure their design could successfully hit targets.