Engineering apprentice becomes youngest winner of Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year (BYPY) Awards

A 19-year-old engineering apprentice has scooped the top prize of Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2024 (BYPY) – becoming the youngest winner of the prestigious accolade.

Santina Bunting, apprentice in Civil & Ground Engineering with global engineering consultants Arup, located in Colmore Business District, took home the top prize at the Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Awards, having also triumphed in the Apprentice of the Year category.

The Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Award 2024 was sponsored by University College Birmingham.

The award was presented during the awards ceremony organised by Future Faces Chamber of Commerce, attended by nearly 500 people at the ICC in Birmingham city centre.

Judges commented that Santina was “absolutely remarkable at presenting and talking about her journey, with some major achievements”, and were very impressed with how “she was behind on maths compared to her university peers, so she taught herself A-level maths.”

In her role at Arup, the 19-year-old has grown steadily from developing geotechnical databases and creating drawings for early-stage highways projects to taking on engineering assessments, analyses, and report writing.

Santina is also the voice for Early Career employees at Arup, regularly organising workplace initiatives centred on topics such as imposter syndrome, personal branding and work winning.

Winning the G4C Construction Excellence Apprentice of the Year was another very proud achievement that recognised Santina’s engineering competencies.

Now, as an assistant technician, she is aiming to become an incorporated engineer after finishing her degree and eventually achieve chartered status. 

With a passion for promoting apprenticeships and STEM, Santina was recently nominated by the CEO of the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education and invited to the King’s Summer Garden Party at Buckingham Palace for her work on their apprentice panel.

Achieving Distinction grades in all of her units and exams earned Santina the ‘Student of the Year’ award from the head of the Built Environment Department and allowed her to complete her apprenticeship in two years instead of three. 

Santina also serves on the UCAS apprenticeship advisory board and regularly collaborates with Pearsons, UCAS and the BBC to promote her journey.

She participated in a UCAS live event from their studios and appeared in a GCSE results day video for Pearsons. Additionally, she has helped organise two apprentice events, one with the Black Apprentice Network and another with Outer circle at Arup offices. 

The Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Awards ceremony was compered by BBC Midlands Today, BBC Asian Network, BBC Radio WM and Sky Sports News reporter Amber Sandhu, and the drinks reception was sponsored by Blackberry Events.

Georgie Butler, associate director of Blackberry Events, said: “Sponsoring the Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Awards gave us an opportunity to celebrate the incredible achievements of young professionals across the Midlands.

“As a company with people, passion and purpose at the core, we had a great time celebrating the bright future of Birmingham with its passionate changemakers, and purpose driven future leaders!”

All winners of the Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Awards 

The full list of winners are:

Greater Birmingham Apprentice of the Year- sponsored by Pathway Group

Santina Adjari-Bunting, Arup

Creative Arts and Culture- sponsored by United by 2022 Charity

Sunjay Kohli, AAA Media

Digital, Technology and Innovation– sponsored by Shoosmiths LLP

Charlotte Stanyer, Entec Si

Environmental, Social and Governance- sponsored by Entec Si

Alex Peart, KPMG LLP

Events, Retail and Hospitality

Money Chopra, Malmaison and Hotel Du Vin

Finance- sponsored by mfg Solicitors

Nadia Johnstone-Smith, Quilter Cheviot Financial Planning

Legal- sponsored by Forvis Mazars

Shereen Johal, Shoosmiths LLP

Property, Construction and Engineering- sponsored by BMet

Aysha Bateman, West Midlands Combined Authority

People and Wellbeing- sponsored by PI-KEM

Charlie Pendlebury, Mills & Reeve LLP

Sales, Marketing and Communications

Rory Pickin, Rohlig UK Ltd

Start-ups, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship– sponsored by Birmingham City University

Iveta Pudilova, Happy Autistic Lady

Not for Profit- sponsored by Unity Trust Bank

Francesca Bagley, United by 2022 Charity

Training and Education- sponsored by Arup

Samantha Strong, Aston University

Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year– sponsored by University College Birmingham

Santina Adjari-Bunting, Arup

Future Faces Ambassador Award– sponsored by Common Purpose

Joel Blake, The Wilkes Partnership

Future Faces President’s Award

Suzie Branch-Haddow, Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet)