United Kingdom Small Medium Enterprise (SME), Field Ready Ltd, which collaborates with government and industry to run employability programmes to prepare young graduates with the skills, knowledge and behaviours required by industrial companies, has concluded the first phase of its Field Ready ventilator challenge.
Sixteen teams of male and female engineers, students and alumni of Field Ready’s employability programmes in Mozambique and Ghana, took up the challenge to design a ventilator that balanced engineering excellence with medical applicability and manufacturing practicality.
The four-week challenge, to design a simple, practical and scalable ventilator, was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and saw ‘Team Marvel, a team of three young engineers from Ghana- Ms Patience Nortey, Ms Nelly Appertey and Mr Ishmael Asare, emerge design winners.
The winning teams will all receive prizes sponsored by Sasol, Daystar Power and Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), and the final design will be presented to the Minister of Employment and Labour in Ghana and the Minister of Science, Technology, Professional, Higher and Technical Education in Mozambique. A spokesperson for the company noted that the inspiration behind the challenge was not only from their desire to fulfil their objective of training local talent in the face of the stay at home restrictions being globally observed; but also spotlight the remarkable potential of local talent if given the right support and guidance.
