Former Keighley College student, Naveed Khan, welcomed celebrity boxer Amir Khan to his garage last week.

The boxing star visited Enkahnz to pick up his car, following service from award-winning Keighley College alumni Naveed.

Amir Khan joins Naveed’s list of prestigious celebrity customers that includes singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake and footballer Tom Cleverley.
Also in attendance at Enkahnz, were several Keighley College motor vehicle students and tutor John Thornham.

The Keighley College students were given a tour of Naveed’s impressive business that he built himself from scratch. They also had the exciting opportunity to meet Amir Khan and get their pictures taken before receiving careers advice from both Naveed and Amir.

Naveed Khan and Enkahnz recently made the news after Naveed’s firm gave Amir Khan’s £100k car a mega makeover for Eid. According to Asian Sunday, the vehicle was fitted with a Barugzai styling pack, which included gleaming new 22-inch alloy wheels, bumpers, an exhaust and spoilers.

On collection of his vehicle, a proud and pleased Amir Khan said “Amazing! I love it man. The plate goes well with it, beautiful.
“It’s slick, very subtle, but really nice, just how I wanted it,” he added.

Naveed’s journey
Naveed began his journey in 1997 and enrolled at Keighley College on a Level 1 Motor Vehicle course, he then enrolled on to the Vehicle Body Repair Level 2 programme the following year.

The talented student quickly went from strength to strength. By the time he became an adult learner, he scooped the prestigious NIACE Adult Learners Award and met up with Phil Hope, British politician and the Minister for Education at the time. Naveed was presented his award by British broadcaster Dermot Murnaghan.

Starting off in his own backyard against his parent’s wishes, Naveed began to build a business in vehicle body repair. He used the skills he’d learned from Keighley College to bolster his business as he moved to a small rented unit. As his business grew, he developed a reputation for premium quality and service.

Naveed then moved to a larger site, eventually owning the entire multi-million pound complex. His focus is now on his own brand of body kits, wheels and other car accessories, many of which are exported worldwide. 

Giving back to the community

Keen to give back to the community, Naveed is happy to share his success with Keighley College students who aspire to follow in his footsteps. 

 Naveed regularly delivers motivational talks at the college and has even brought along with him a selection of super cars including Ferraris and Range Rovers.

Commenting on Naveed’s success, proud tutor, John Thornham said:
“Students always enjoy Naveed’s speeches because they can relate to his rags to riches story and one of the reasons he has been successful is through the good publicity he promotes.

“The college has been following Naveed’s success from day one and this is a story everyone wants to see, it’s proof that FE works and pays off in the end.”
Naveed has been invited back to Keighley College in November to deliver another motivational speech to students.

On 17 October, Foundation Studies students attended People First’s Disability, Transport & Hate Crime Conference. This was an excellent opportunity for students to take part in democracy by airing concerns they have about local public transport, as well as highlighting services that are working well.

Students enjoyed being part of their community and took a keen interest in the topics being discussed. The event was well attended, with managers from Metro, TransDev, Bradford Council and local taxi services representing their organisations who all led Q&A sessions. The conference also highlighted important issues about hate crime, and what people could do if they felt they were being targeted due to their disabilities.

We made new contacts at the event, and will be inviting some speakers from TransDev into college to help students apply for travel passes and provide safety info and resource packs for learners. Our students did the college proud, they were attentive and enthusiastic, and took on board many of the issues being discussed.

Engineering apprentice, Isaac Khan, represented the UK in this year’s WorldSkills competition in Russia. The talented student is now completing the Level 3 BTEC in Engineering and on the way to becoming a qualified mechanical engineer. We caught up with him to find out more.

What made you choose your course?
I studied this course as part of my four year apprenticeship at CarnaudMetalbox, and Keighley College is where I did my initial training.

What were your highlights at the college?
Highlights at college has to be receiving my certificates, it’s good to know all my hard work has paid off.

What are you doing now?
I’m currently in my last year of my apprenticeship and I’m finishing a Level 3 NVQ so I will be a fully qualified mechanical engineer.

What do you enjoy most about it?
Engineering is something I enjoy, working on machines and learning different skills is something I get to do every day. The support from everyone at work is great, they’re always willing to help me develop.

What competitions have you been involved in?
I’ve been involved in the WorldSkills competition for the last two years, we initially competed in the UK national finals where we were able to win gold and qualify for Squad UK. After this, we qualified for Team UK and represented the country this summer in Kazan, Russia along with 35 other young people.

What did you have to do?
We had to design, manufacture and assemble an electric wheelchair in a three day competition against seven other countries from around the world. We had various surprise tasks that we had to produce components for and test our wheelchair to ensure it was up to the international standard. We were able to finish 6th in a tough competition which is something we are really proud of!

How did you get involved in these?
I got involved in this through work, it’s something that our company has been involved in for almost a decade and has seen us send four teams to international competitions around the globe.

I would like to say a big thank you to my former tutors Ronnie Magee and George Myles for their training and support over the last two years which was crucial on our journey to Russia!