Local workforce involved in ‘UK Ventilator Challenge’ shortlisted for prestigious St David’s Awards.

Workers from Airbus Broughton involved with the ‘UK Ventilator Challenge’ have been shortlisted for this St David’s Awards.

The project saw staff from Airbus, Siemens and AMRC build lifesaving equipment for the NHS at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

They worked around the clock to assemble ventilators which was equivalent of six month’s production in a single day.

The workforce have been nominated in the Innovation, Science and Technology category.

The St David Awards are Wales’s national awards, which celebrate the extraordinary achievements of the people of Wales.

Jack Sargeant MS said: “This is great news and hugely deserved. ”

“Those life savers who worked on the ventilator challenge performed nothing short of a miracle. ”

“As an engineer myself I understand the difficulty of completely switching production processes to do so quickly and to produce so many ventilators is mind blowing.”

“I am so proud to have been able to nominate this group of workers.”

BROUGHTON | Delighted to see #Airbus ✈️and @SiemensUKNews staff who helped build more than 13K ventilators for the #NHS as part of the @VentilatorU consortium being recognised in the @WelshGovernment‘s @stdavidawards. Congratulations to all the other worthy finalists too! 👏 https://t.co/7q7EVCi1Y1

— Airbus In The UK (@AirbusintheUK) February 25, 2021

Announcing the finalists, the First Minister said: “This year’s St David Awards finalists are an inspiring group of people that we are lucky to have living and working in Wales.”

Unite the Union rep at Airbus Daz Reynolds said: “This is an incredibly talented and highly skilled workforce that I am proud to represent.”

The work that our members have done in making life saving ventilators should be recognised and I am delighted that we have been nominated for this award and thank Jack for his ongoing support and for nominating us.”

An Airbus spokesman said: “We’re delighted that the efforts of Airbus and Siemens staff who worked as part of the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium to produce 13,400 ventilators for the NHS has been recognised in this way.”

“We’d also like to congratulate all the other worthy finalists in the 2021 St David’s Awards.”

The full list of finalists can be seen here https://gov.wales/st-david-awards/2021-awards