Winners of the WorldSkills UK’s ‘Designathon’ took their innovative concept from idea to reality during a hands-on experience at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) Training in Coventry recently. The Designathon, part of WorldSkills UK’s competition-based learning programme, challenged students to tackle real-world engineering problems with creative, practical solutions. The winning team from New College Lanarkshire in Scotland impressed judges with its robotic grabber design, a precision tool for automated picking and placing that shows strong potential for real-world application.

More information www.worldskillsuk.org/learning-lab

Zebra Technologies Corporation, a global specialist in digitising and automating frontline workflows, has launched the Industrial Automation Centre of Excellence in collaboration with Clearview, a Zebra industrial automation distributor. Located in Oxfordshire, the centre will offer relevant services, training advisory, and practical demonstrations for manufacturing specialists across the EMEA region. The centre will support end users, machine builders and systems integrators looking for machine vision, 3D and AI solutions to secure greater asset visibility and support intelligently automated operations.

More information www.clearview-imaging.com/coe

The best of British engineering and manufacturing grasped glory at the Enginuity Skills Awards 2025 in a glittering ceremony hosted at the Park Plaza London Riverbank in London. Mohammed Mahmood, from Stoke, was deemed by the judging panel of industry luminaries, to be the Best of British Engineering – the winner of winners, having picked up the Best T Level student category earlier in the evening. Arriving in England with limited English and no industry experience, Mahmood pursued a T Level in Building Services Engineering to gain technical knowledge and practical skills.

More information https://enginuity.org/