Pembrokeshire College Engineering Apprentices have proved they have the skills needed for their chosen career after winning the Commercial Potential category at the recent Big Bang Fair.

Last week, the Engineering Education Scheme Wales (EESW) brought the Big Bang Fair - one of the largest events in STEM - to the Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli. An established event in the calendar of schools and colleges, over 80 teams from across south Wales took part in the competition, showcasing their solutions to a wide range of engineering challenges.

With two teams of Valero Energy Engineering Apprentices competing from Pembrokeshire College, Team 1 designed and manufactured a pneumatic safety barrier, while Team 2 designed and manufactured a hydrocarbon detector. Both teams were nominated for multiple categories, including Health and Safety Applications and Commercial Potential.

Following intense scrutiny from the event judges, Team 2 were announced as winners of the Commercial Potential category and were one of three teams selected to go forward to compete at the UK Young Engineers competition to be held at the NEC, Birmingham in March 2019.

Curriculum manager for Engineering, Malcom York, commented: “We are really proud of both teams of apprentices. They put a lot of effort into their projects and this is the first time that a team has been selected to go through to the UK Young Engineers competition. We would also like to thank the personnel at Valero and the college staff who supported the apprentices, giving them invaluable advice on their projects.”

First year Energy Engineering Apprentice, Ieuan Davies , of Tenby, was part of the winning team and commented: “Taking part in this project has been a really positive experience. As a team we learnt a lot of new skills and their real world applications. We’re looking forward to competing again next March.”

The annual EESW event is designed to link students who are under the age of 20 with local engineering companies, to give them a platform to showcase their problem solving skills together with a flavour of the real world through live briefs.

To find out more about engineering courses available at Pembrokeshire College, why not attend the Open Evening on May 1, from 5 - 7 pm.