Fancy a career in the automotive industry?

Your chance to gain priceless industry experience... and £9K!

If you're a regular reader of the site, and aged between 17 and 25, chances are you've at some point considered a career in the automotive industry. It can seem like a daunting clique to break into though, the words "who, not what, you know" all too often trotted out.

Well, how does six months of work experience - proper work experience, not just fetching cups of tea and doing some photocopying - with industry leading manufacturers including McLaren, JLR and Honda sound? Pretty good we'd bet.

The Autocar-Courland Next Generation Award is a national competition to identify, support and develop the top automotive talent of the future. Entrants are invited to draft a 1,000-word response to a brief, with this year's being to "describe an idea or innovation that would improve the UK automotive business..." The idea should fall into one of five categories - mobility, connectivity, sustainability, customer experience, or marketing and communications - but can focus on any area of the automotive industry.

Six entrants will initially be shortlisted to present their ideas to the panel of industry judges. With three finalists then invited to the SMMT dinner, to showcase their ideas in front of the SMMT guests, before the final winner is chosen.

This is a great opportunity to use what you know to meet the 'whos' that could make your dream career a reality. Last year's winner, Mechanical Engineering student Joshua de Wit, scooped the award thanks to his design, which uses stacked graphene batteries to drastically reduce the weight, charge times and packaging needs of conventional battery systems in electric vehicles. You can see more of what Joshua went through on his way to winning, as well as what he can expect over the next six months, in the video below. Which follows 2015 winner, Morven Fraser, as she undertakes her placements across the industry.

If you think you have an idea which could change the automotive landscape, you can enter here with the deadline for entries being 5pm on August 29th 2017. Good luck!