A team of fire and security engineering apprentices from South Eastern Regional College's Lisburn and Newtownards campuses won the annual PBL X project competition on 10 March at the Lisburn campus.

Harry Johnston, 20, from Newtownards; Zeki Kaya, 20, from Newtownards; and Fernando Gomes Da Silva, 25, from Magherafelt took first place. All three study Level 3 Apprenticeship NI in Fire and Security Systems. Their project features a security engineering and resource centre with hands-on training in intruder alarms, CCTV, and access control systems installed at the Newtownards and Lisburn campuses.

The centre functions as training hubs for fire and security professionals. It supports apprenticeships, technician training, and skills development with integrated security and AI-powered Internet of Things technologies.

Lewis Nickell, 27, Peter Church, 45, and Ben Hartley, 24, all from Bangor and Restart Education students, earned joint second place. Their project organises a Christmas 2025 donation drive for young people in care.

Jameson Cheuk, 21, from Moira; Ethan Hopkins, 22, from Crumlin; Brody Fyffe-McFadden, 20, from Lisburn; Matthew Beech, 20, from Dunmurry; and Victor Smith Quiroz, 52, from Belfast also placed joint second. These Level 3 Professional Chef students at Lisburn campus partnered with Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council on a recipe book to cut household food waste using leftovers.

Gary Ritchie, Deputy Principal for Curriculum, praised the participants for their achievement and the college's focus on applied learning and job preparation. He thanked judges Katie Matthews-Furphy from The Mind Tribe UK, Irvine Abraham from Above Ground Level, and Bronagh Ward from Royal Academy of Engineering for their feedback.

Winners received trophies, vouchers, Kindles, and college entrepreneur club hoodies. All finalists got vouchers and hoodies. Projects qualify for mentoring from the college enterprise team. Two projects advance to the Intercollege Sector PBL Competition at South West College in Omagh on 30 April.