BESA awards put young engineers in the spotlight at London dinner

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) recognised 70 companies and individuals at its 2026 Industry Awards in London on 22 October, with a new Trainee of the Year prize and free places for apprentices for the first time.

BESA said more than 450 members and guests attended the dinner and after party at the Brewery, Chiswell Street, which followed the association's annual conference at the same venue earlier in the day. Mitsubishi Electric was headline sponsor and the drag performer La Voix hosted the ceremony.

The association said the categories spanned the full supply chain and reflected the industry's work on competence and compliance, indoor air quality and decarbonisation. BESA's report on the night gave the number of categories as 21; its official winners page says the 2026 awards featured 19.

Charlie Ward, BESA's senior group events and partnership manager, said: "With all the talk about a 'lost generation' of young people struggling to find work in the UK, we felt our best contribution would be to put even more impressive young workers in the spotlight and celebrate their achievements."

The winners

Maisie Vaulters of F P Hurley & Sons won the new overall Trainee of the Year Award, sponsored by Milwaukee, and also took the Learner of the Year prize. Shanie Chauhan of Crown House Technologies won the Rising Star Award.

Among the company categories listed on BESA's winners page, Linaker won Contractor of the Year Over £5 Million, sponsored by Schneider Electric. Dalkia Engineering's Countess of Chester Hospital Women and Children's Building took Project of the Year Over £500K, sponsored by Vexve, and VES was named Manufacturer of the Year, sponsored by AIRO.

Sayes & Co received a commemorative award marking 85 years of BESA membership. Kirsty Cogan, chief executive of SFG20, received the President's Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Category sponsors, according to BESA, were Schneider Electric, TICA, Ideal Heating and ACV, Geoffrey Robinson, Vexve, Milwaukee, Nuaire, AIRO, S&P and Mikropor.

WorldSkills guests

Finalists in the 2026 WorldSkills UK Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump competition attended as special guests. BESA is the competition's organising partner, and in July it named six finalists for the final in Wales in November 2026: Alex Huggins, Jacob Mclean, James Burns, Kaya Yanik, Kian Ferns and Martin Oates.

BESA said Sam Jones, recently back from Shanghai with the gold medal from the 2026 Skills Olympics, received a further award from Kooltech. WorldSkills UK, which names him as Samuel Jones, said the 21-year-old from Ashton near Wigan works for Industrial Cooling Equipment Ltd and won gold in Refrigeration & Air Conditioning at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.

Team UK came home with two golds, one silver and three bronze medals, which WorldSkills UK described as its strongest performance since the 2017 event in Abu Dhabi. Ben Blackledge, chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said: "This is a terrific set of results which everyone in the UK should be proud of."

Ian Lemmon of Beijer Ref received a special award for his years of work for WorldSkills as a judge and competition organiser.

Apprentices attend free

For the first time, apprentices attended the awards free of charge with support from the Manly Trust. Ward said the trust's backing would mean more young people could travel to the conference and awards.

The 2026 attendance compares with more than 500 members and guests at the 2025 awards, when BESA reported a 44% rise in entries on the previous year. In August 2025 the association said the awards comprised 27 categories after 2024 entries passed 100 for the first time.

BESA, formerly the Heating and Ventilating Contractors' Association, says it has operated for more than 120 years and is owned by its members with no external shareholders.

The WorldSkills UK Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump final takes place in Wales in November 2026.