National Express West Midlands Apprentice Wins

Hasan Khan, an Electrical Apprentice for National Express West Midlands, has been named best Electric Driveline Apprentice following a national IRTE Bus and Coach Skills Challenge competition earlier this year.

31-year-old Hasan is based at the bus operator's Acocks Green garage in Birmingham. Last week he was presented with the best Electric Driveline Apprentice trophy in front of competitors and peers from across the transport industry at the IRTE Skills Challenge Awards ceremony on Wednesday 16 July.  Hasan, from Kings Heath, secured the top spot by demonstrating mechanical and electrical skills learned during his apprenticeship.

He competed in the IRTE Skills Challenge competition in June among 60 qualified and apprentice engineers from across the bus and coach industry, achieving the highest score in his category after diagnosing different electrical faults, making circuits using breadboards, and completing online tests too. When asked about his award win, Hasan said: "I'm very honoured to receive this award and has shown that my hard work has been acknowledged and appreciated.

I am very proud. To compete against all of my peers and come out on top shows I am heading in the right direction in my career. "I plan to compete again next year and take part in the mechanical challenge, so I am hoping to win an award on both sides - that's my ambition for the coming year."

Craig Perkins, Engineering Apprenticeship Manager for National Express West Midlands, said: "I'm really pleased with how well Hasan has done in the competition this year, and I also want to say a huge well done to Mate and Tyler, two of our other apprentices who competed. "Hasan had been doubting himself but this award shows his hard work has been recognised and will set him up for a great career in engineering.

Now he can really push himself to continue his hard work and become a brilliant technician." Mate Zsoldi, a 25-year-old Engineering Apprentice and 21-year-old Tyler Newbold who is a Body Apprentice also competed in the IRTE Skills Challenge as part of National Express West Midlands' team. Chris Knight from the Society of Operations Engineers, said: 

"The 2025 edition of the IRTE Skills Challenge has been yet another record-breaking year. Each time we think we've seen the best the industry has to offer, the next year raises the bar even higher. The standard of talent this year was truly outstanding and it just keeps getting better." 

The 13th IRTE Skills Challenge was held in Bristol between the 2nd and 6th June.

The cornerstone event aims to highlight the skills, dedication, and hard work of the UK's top transport engineers.

This year's award ceremony took place at The Grand Station in Wolverhampton on Wednesday 16th June and Jade Gray from Routeone magazine presented Hasan with his award.

Transport & Logistics - Driving The Industry Forward