Pump Centre Young Engineering Award

Phil Black - PII Editor 15/05/2015

280 2 minutes read

Listen to this article

The winner in the Apprentice Category of this year’s Pump Centre Young Engineering Awards has been announced as 21-year-old Josh Baynham of SPP Pumps.

Josh received his prestigious Award at the Pump Centre Conference Dinner in Telford last night (13th May) on the eve of the UK’s premier pump conference and exhibition. It was presented by Pump Centre Chairman Mike Rush and Automated Technology Group Business Development Director Nick Reidy.

In a rigorous judging process, candidates were assessed on the basis of a written application form, a presentation and an interview. The independent panel of judges was extremely impressed by the professionalism and quality of the candidates, and by the standard of Josh’s presentations and answers under interview conditions.

Growing up close to SPP’s base in Colefield, Gloucestershire, and attending the nearby Lakers School, Josh joined the company’s team of highly skilled and experienced engineers as an apprentice in 2010. He completed his Mechanical HNC last year and is now working towards his Mechanical HND.

“I have been interested in engineering since about the age of 12,” says Josh. “I started to fix items and figure out how they worked, and then progressed to designing them. After doing some more design work at school and home, I realised that design engineering was the route I wanted to take. At 16 I knew what I wanted to do, and that an apprenticeship at SPP was the best option.”

In his career with SPP so far, Josh has been particularly proud of his involvement in the company’s J de Jonge Oiltanking Malta project. This was the first large pumpset on which he had acted as lead engineer, and he gained much from the experience.

Welcoming the news of Josh’s achievement, Ken Winn, SPP’s Operations Director, said: “We have been delighted by the way Josh has applied himself to his budding engineering career. This Award is a well-deserved reflection on his enthusiasm and talent, and we expect him to go far.”

He added: “As visitors to our stand at Telford Pump Centre Conference and Exhibition will see, SPP Pumps staff are committed to listening to customers, understanding their needs and creating reliable, efficient solutions that perform as they should, where it really matters. Josh has demonstrated that same attitude and will undoubtedly have a part to play in our future as we continue to build on our proud manufacturing heritage.”