Ed (centre in the below picture) left the UTC a year ago to start a 4-year apprenticeship in classic car restoration. This involves on-the-job training, experience (and payment!) at Jensen specialist, Cropredy Bridge Garage, and 6-weekly block-release study at the Heritage Skills Academy at Brooklands. Ed was Cropredy Bridge's first apprentice, and they are so pleased with him, that they've just taken on a second apprentice. Ed's skills, knowledge and confidence have grown significantly in the last year, and he couldn't be happier. This is a great success story, and although not exactly the high-performance engineering that the UTC wants to be known for, Ed's time at UTC, undoubtedly, provided a significant springboard into his chosen career.

Richard Hammond (former Top Gear presenter) approached Cropredy Bridge in the summer to get help with a Jensen he was restoring on his new TV show. While there he met Ed and asked to film him working on the car. Richard clearly like what he saw, so asked Ed to come to his new workshop, The Smallest Cog, in Hereford to do some more filming. This is currently what's being aired in Episode 6, which came out yesterday. Richard asked Ed to become the show's apprentice, but he still has another 3 years to run on his contract with Cropredy Bridge, who wouldn't release him, so his moment of fame seems to have come to an end, for now. That said, the Jensen Owner's Club also featured an interview with Ed in their magazine, recently. I visited the NEC Classic Car Show with Ed a couple of weeks ago, where he exuded pride in pointing out several show cars that he had worked on. Through his apprenticeship, he's saved enough money to buy a classic project of his own, which he's very excited about.