The moustachioed Dick Strawbridge was last year’s celebrity judge, but that role has been axed as the CGi cuts costs following the loss of it sponsor.. (0594034)

THE Confederation of Guernsey Industry’s Technology Challenge will go ahead this year.

The future of the event, which sees secondary school students participate in a design challenge based on a specific theme, was in doubt following the loss of sponsor NRG International, which announced earlier this year its plans to relocate its Guernsey operation to Amsterdam.

As a result its sponsorship for this year’s contest was scrapped, but the CGi has stepped in itself to secure the event’s funding. It will take place on Monday 15 June at Rue Maingy.

In fact, the CGi has used the current economic situation affecting the world as the basis for the theme of this year’s event ‘make do and mend’.

But the event will have to make do without its UK celebrity judge, a role filled last year by Scrapheap Challenge’s Dick Strawbridge.

Instead former Guernsey Sea Cadets commanding officer Eddie Parks will take on the role.

Technology Challenge co-ordinator and CGi member Simon Keys said the event was in a transitional year.

‘We have been presented with a situation and tried to use it to our advantage.’