Lydia beats the best for top apprentice award

LYDIA Feasey, from Thame, has beaten other regional finalists  to win the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Apprentice of the Year, a prize which recognises the best and the brightest apprentices and technicians. Lydia received her prize at a prestigious awards ceremony hosted by Liz Bonnin, TV presenter and bio-chemist, on November 20, at The Brewery, in London.

Lydia Feasey is congratulated by the Mayor of Thame, Peter Lambert (photo by Frank Millar)

Lydia, who won the Thames Valley Apprentice of the Year award back in September, works at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Abingdon,Oxfordshire, the headquarters of the Joint European Torus, the world’s largest nuclear fusion project. As the Institutes recognition of Lydia explained: “Since fusion may be one of our main sources of energy in the future, the work Lydia is involved with is integral to the world’s future energy security. When critical parts from the reactor lining needed to be removed to be analysed, Lydia was called upon to help ensure that the removal and transportation was safe and successful.

“Lydia was responsible for the logistics and tracking of 500 components that needed to be removed. Each was worth up to £20,000, involved hazardous materials and contained invaluable data for the international fusion research programme. Every component made it to its destination safely and intact. Lydia has worked tirelessly to promote apprenticeships, and has been awarded several times already for the quality of her work.”

Besides winning a cash prize , Lydia was presented with a certificate and free entry and two years membership of the Institute. She recently went up to the Houses of Parliament and spoke to the members about apprenticeships and answered their questions in an effort to get their support for increasing the availability of such schemes.

Lydia was born and grew up in Thame, going to John Hampden school and the on to Lord Williams’s. After leaving school she managed to get an apprenticeship at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy and has during that time won a number of awards but none so prestigious as the one she received in London last week.

While Lydia has now lived for almost a year in Grove, near Wantage with her partner, she is back in Thame most weekends, if only to check that her mums cooking is still up to standard!