A team of apprentices from Niftylift in Milton Keynes has won the 2025 IMechE Apprentice Automation Challenge (AAC), marking the company’s second consecutive victory in the prestigious national competition.
Now in its 11th year, the annual engineering competition has been steadily growing in popularity, with a record 17 apprentice teams joining to demonstrate a wide variety of products and a high level of quality and professionalism in their work. The finals of this year’s competition were held at the held at the prestigious Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry.
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While judging was close, the judges ultimately crowned the apprentices from team Elevation Nation at Niftylift the 2025 champions, marking their retention of the title for the second year in a row.
‘The winning team significantly impressed with their presentation skills,’ explained chief judge Toby Heagarty. ‘The prototype they developed showed iteration over time into their final product and the significant amount of research they had done into the market was a key factor in the judges’ decision.’
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The Seven Seeds team from Leonardo earned the coveted Peer Review award, voted for by their fellow teams at the finals, while Thales’ Mech Me Up Before You Go Go secured the Manufacturer’s Most Commended award.
The Apprentice Automation Challenge tasks apprentice engineers with designing and building a prototype device that automates a common product or process and is open to those in both industry and academia. Participants are encouraged to develop their existing skills and knowledge as they take their ideas and make them a reality, alongside writing a full design and business report that mirrors the requirements found in industry.
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The finals event provides teams with the opportunity to present their work for evaluation and scoring by a panel of judges, often engineers in industry. These include formal presentations of their product documentation alongside a proper demonstration of their prototype devices. This included a design specification document, manufacturing process, a user-friendly manual and a business case for the production, marketing and sale of their proposed product.
With requirements and rules that are as close to the real world as possible, the challenge enables young engineers to gain valuable skills and experience of working as a team on an engineering project that are important as they move into graduate roles in industry.
This year’s winning team will go home from the Coventry finals with a prize of £2,000 and will go on to exhibit their work at next year’s Smart Manufacturing and Engineering Week, organised by the Manufacturer.
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The Apprentice Automation Challenge will open for new registrations for the 2026 competition towards the end of this year. Further information can be found here.