Registration for Apprentice Automation Challenge 2025 Extended to 14 March

The deadline for free team registration for the Apprentice Automation Challenge 2025 has been extended to 14 March 2025, giving aspiring young engineers more time to enter this exciting engineering competition.

Now in its 11th year, the Challenge offers more opportunities for participants to develop their problem-solving skills, technical expertise, and teamwork in an exciting, industry-focused environment. Apprentice teams already confirmed to join this year include young engineers from Leonardo UK, Thales, BAE Systems Submarines, Ricoh UK Products and current champions Niftylift.

On the fence about joining? Here's why you and your fellow apprentices should join:

• Develop your technical skills and experience
• Broaden your professional development
• Experience working as part of a team
• Understand about product lifecycle processes

"The great thing about this challenge is that they need to consider the product as a whole; not only the engineering (which they always want to dive straight into), but the target market, price/cost, manufacturing and distribution. We get our Business apprentices involved alongside our Technical apprentices so that they can get to understand each others’ roles. We also get them to follow our lifecycle management process, with regular Design Maturity Reviews, so it gives them an opportunity to learn our new product development processes in a safe environment." says Leonardo UK's Head of Mechanical Engineering Rob Armstrong.

Here's a reminder of how to get involved in the Apprentice Automation Challenge:

• Download the AAC 2025 rules
• Gather a team of up to eight apprentices
• Complete the registration form on the Challenge website
• Start brainstorming ideas for your product

If you have any questions, visit the Apprentice Automation Challenge website or email our team at aac.challenge@imeche.org.

On behalf of the IMechE and the Challenge organising committee, we look forward to welcoming you and your team to the Apprentice Automation Challenge 2025.