CLAAS UK and Alamo Group scholarships winner: William Flittner

William Flittner, 24 from Norfolk, UK is a second year BEng Agricultural Engineering student and the recipient of the CLAAS UK Scholarship, which is awarded annually to one second year student on an Engineering course at Harper Adams University. William has also been awarded an Alamo Group Scholarship which is open to all second year engineering students at Harper Adams.

As the successful scholar, William will undertake a 12 month paid work placement at the CLAAS Headquarters in Germany, in addition to receiving a final award from the company in his second and subsequent years of academic study.

CLAAS has had strong links with Harper Adams for many years. Helmut Claas, second generation of the CLAAS family, established a scholarship which has been running for over 10 years.

Will said, “I applied for the CLAAS UK scholarship as I recognised the prestigious nature of the awards and the huge opportunities that are available to successful applicants. My success, as a mature student, has proved that any student can apply with nothing to lose.

William has a high interest in agriculture engineering, he said, “I have always been fascinated by harvesting machinery and in particular combine harvesters. The cereal harvest is my favourite time of the year and after spending a few seasons operating combine harvesters in England and Australia, I started to identify areas to improve the designs of the machinery.

“I believed CLAAS would recognise my level of interest, passion for their machinery and its continual evolution and improvement. My experience of operating harvesting machinery gave me the confidence to apply and belief that I would be suitable for the scholarship placement.

“The CLAAS UK scholarship will provide me with a unique experience, to live and work in Germany, which will be invaluable when considering my future career in agricultural engineering.”

Left to Right:  Sarah Steggall (HR Manager, CLAAS UK), Will Flittner, Berthold Schwersmann (CLAAS Germany), Ricarda Dustmann (CLAAS Germany)