The Apprentice Automation Challenge provides a brilliant opportunity for talented apprentices to compete in an innovative design and manufacturing challenge to improve an everyday home or garden device.

Organised by the Institution's Manufacturing Industries Division’s Young Members Committee, it engages with teams of apprentice engineers to design, develop and build a fully working system that solves a real-world problem.

All teams submit a report that includes a full design specification, manufacturing instructions, user manual and business case. The Challenge culminates in the Finals at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry, where teams are able to demonstrate their working prototypes and respond to questions from the judging panel.