Winners announced for IRTE Skills Challenge 18 July 2013

The great and the good of the UK bus technician community gathered today (18 July 2013) at Mercedes-Benz World for the IRTE's Skills Challenge awards ceremony lunch.

With 16 teams fielded by seven bus operators – Arriva, FirstGroup, Go-Ahead London, Go South Coast, London Borough of Redbridge, Translink and Reading Buses – and 48 technicians taking part, it was a tense event.

As in previous years, teams comprised electrical, mechanical and bodywork technicians, and this year's award recipients were:

Top Scoring Mechanical Technician, sponsored by Allison Transmission:
Winner: William Scott, Translink
Runner up: Glenn Cooke, Arriva UK Bus
Highly Commended: Ian Challoner, Go South Coast

Top Scoring Electrical Technician, sponsored by BAE Systems:
Winner: Pete Murphy, FirstGroup
Runner up: Colin Harris, Arriva UK Bus
Highly Commended: Robert Farnell, FirstGroup

Top Scoring Bodywork Technician, sponsored by Bridgestone:
Winner: Joseph Hotchkiss, FirstGroup
Runner up: Jan Colville, Translink
Highly Commended: Stephen Hall, Arriva UK Bus

Mechanical and Electrical Award, sponsored by Shell:
Winners: Ian Challoner and Dave Neal, Go South Coast
Runners up: Peter Buckle and David O'Hara, FirstGroup

Mechanical, Electrical and Bodywork Combined Award, sponsored by Knorr-Bremse:
Winners: William Scott, Adam McGrath and Jan Colville, Translink
Runners up: Ian Challoner, Dave Neal and Lee Grady, Go South Coast

Top Scoring Mechanical Apprentice:
Winner: Daniel Bartlett, FirstGroup
Runner up: Tom Hubbard, Arriva UK Bus

Top Scoring Electrical Apprentice:
Winner: Matthew Fleming, Go-Ahead London
Runner up: Sean Ives, Arriva UK Bus

Top Scoring Bodywork Apprentice
Winner: James Ward, Arriva UK Bus
Runner up: Chris Sayers, Go-Ahead London

The IRTE Award for Outstanding Achievement
Winners: Glenn Cooke, Colin Harris and Stephen Hall, Arriva UK Bus

The Skills Challenge 2013 was conducted at S&B Automotive Academy.

For the practical assessments, competitors worked on two buses – a MAN CitySmart 14:250 and a Scania Omni-link – as well as a Volvo 9700 coach.

Author
Brian Tinham

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