Charity Challenge - Pedal Cart Grand Prix

This campaign

Apprentice Innovation Charity – Judging Day

Wednesday 5^th December 2007 saw the judging day for this campaign’s Apprentice Innovation Challenge. The event marked the climax of nine months worth of hard work as teams of apprentices from across our sites in the UK worked on real life challenges set by our UK partner charity, Macmillan Cancer Support.

The nine teams were asked to respond to either a mechanical to produce an information pod for the charity to use in places like libraries and community centres or an electrical challenge to produce an aid for patients with lymphoedema, which is swelling of the lymphoid glands, which restricts movement and is caused by cancer treatment.

The standard of workmanship from the teams really blew everyone away and the judges had a very hard time narrowing the top four let along choosing a winner. The standard of the efforts was so high that Macmillan are keen to not only test and produce the winning design but also use some of the other designs that the teams came up with.

The overall winner was the team from Brough Military Air Solutions in East Yorkshire and their unique information pod. Apprentice Richard Trowell, one of the project managers on the Brough team, said: “We’re elated to have won the challenge. This is the first time that Brough has entered so we really didn’t expect it. We’ve really enjoyed putting the skills we’ve learned at BAE Systems into practice, particularly for such a worthwhile cause, and we’re also able to put this project towards our NVQ/HNC coursework so everyone’s a winner.”

Jason Suckley, Corporate Partnerships Director at Macmillan Cancer Support said: ”The Innovation Challenge is a wonderful concept which truly tests the skills of BAE Systems’ apprentices for a worthy cause. It shows that the relationship between BAE Systems and Macmillan Cancer Support is more than fundraising.”

What is it?

So what is it all about? Well it all started in 2001 with the launch of the first challenge. The challenge is set by the UK’s partner charity and teams of apprentices are invited to take up the challenge. There are two challenges set, one is a mechanical and the other and electronic challenge. The hours the team dedicate towards the project is converted to involvement hours and this goes forward to be matched funded by the company. In previous challenges this has equated to roughly £50 for every 7 hours.

Timescales

All registration forms should be received by March 30th, 2007.
Progress reports must be submitted by the end of every month.
Volunteering reports must also be submitted by the end of every month.
The Challenge concludes on Friday October 12th, 2007. All paperwork and documentation will also need to arrive by this date.
The Judging Day will be held at Farnborough, Tuesday November 6th, 2007.
At the judging day the top four teams will be announced followed by the winner. All teams will be invited to the Award Ceremony in May 2008 where the winners will receive their trophy.

Key Objectives

There’s more to the challenge than merely raising money, it is designed to provide a vehicle for apprentices to turn an invention into an innovation whilst making a real difference to the Charity Challenge partner charity.

To develop apprentice skills in communication, leadership, engineering, team work, negotiation, process and time management
Provide apprentices the opportunity to participate in a complete life cycle of a product from invention to creation
Provides an avenue for the achievement of a Modern Apprenticeship in Engineering
Provide a solution to a real problem that will make a real difference to the end user

There are guidelines here on how to run your team and the stages to consider during the challenge. Challenge Guidelines.

The Judging will be held on November 6th, 2007 where teams will be able to showcase their projects. All teams will have an area where they can display their working models and any other materials that are relevant to the project. All teams will be given a strict 10 minutes to present their projects to the judging panel via any medium. Points are awarded for such things as presentation, timeliness of reporting as wells as build standard of the prototype. Click here for detailed scoring.

Award Presentations

The award for the Apprentice Innovation Challenge will be announced at the Judging Day in Farnborough once the top four teams have been announced. The Award will be given at the Charity Challenge Awards Ceremony in March 2008. All the teams from the Judging day will be invited to attend the dinner and award ceremony (location and date to be confirmed) where the winning team will be awarded their trophy.

Contact Details

Caroline Hanmer
Charity Challenge Campaign Leader
Phone: 01252 383 236
Fax: 01252 383237
Email: caroline.hanmer@baesystems.com

James Hayward
Charity Challenge Campaign Assistant
Phone: 01252 385 877
Fax: 01252 383237
Email: james.hayward2@baesystems.com

Apprentice Innovation Challenge 2007