TWO apprentices at leading Ely manufacturing company Shearline have picked up three highly prestigious awards at this year s final of the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) East Midlands and Mid-Anglia s Apprentice of the Year competition. The event f

TWO apprentices at leading Ely manufacturing company Shearline have picked up three highly prestigious awards at this year's final of the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) East Midlands and Mid-Anglia's Apprentice of the Year competition.

The event finale, which took place last month at EEF's headquarters in Oakham saw Liam Peters, a third year apprentice at Shearline, pick up the runners-up award for Apprentice of the Year. His colleague, Daniel Walker, also a third year apprentice, then closed the door on all other competition by going one better and picking up the winners' award in the same category.

To complete the treble, Daniel then went on to beat off stiff competition from a number of large multinational organisations, including the likes of Rolls Royce, and was awarded the competition's highest accolade, the Overall Apprentice of the Year title. In addition to their award certificates, Daniel and Liam also received cash prizes.

Hilary Bacon, Shearline's HR manager, said: "To go up against some of the country's biggest and best engineering and manufacturing organisations is testament to Daniel and Liam's knowledge and understanding of the engineering industry as well as their enthusiasm and determination to succeed. We're delighted for both of them; their awards represent a reflection of the amount of time and effort that they put into their assignments for this competition."

Shearline is based on the Cambridgeshire Business Park in Ely, and has been running its training programme for 13 years.