A 22-year-old entrepreneur has been tipped as a potential "next James Dyson" after scooping a national award for her technology repair company.

Engineer Megan Hale, from West Malling, is the co-founder of Team Repair, a sustainable subscription service that teaches children how to repair and re-use tech, guided by an app.

Every month, users are sent an electronic gadget with carefully planned faults, and all the tools they need to fix it.

They then send the gadget back to Team Repair but get to keep the tools – building a complete toolbox across the 12-month programme.

Megan had a childhood dream of becoming an inventor and later found her passion in engineering.

Explaining the passion behind her start-up venture, she said: "What got me into engineering was that I had family members that would always encourage me to repair, whether that be just for fun.

"I remember changing my iPhone screen from quite a young age just because it's so much cheaper than going to a shop to go and get it done or buying a new phone, and that was just a norm for me.

"But then talking to other people my age, that isn't normal. And people definitely have this mindset that just buy new all the time. Nobody really thinks to try and repair anything.

"It just seemed crazy to my co-founders and I that there wasn't a product on the market that allowed children to do this."

Together with four colleagues at Imperial College London, the design engineering graduate founded her business in 2021 to solve two of Britain’s biggest pressing challenges: the lack of diversity in STEM and the electronic waste crisis.

Megan added: "As a female engineer and entrepreneur, my co-founders and I founded Team Repair to teach the repair skills lost through the generations.

"When we were young, we enjoyed taking broken things apart and trying to fix them.

"These hands-on experiences inspired us to become engineers and live more sustainably. Our programme instils a repair mindset in the next generation; with the aim of reducing e-waste and increasing diversity in the STEM industry."

"When we were young, we enjoyed taking broken things apart and trying to fix them."

With a waitlist of over 300, Team Repair has tested the project with hundreds of families. It also offers dedicated kits and learning materials for schools, councils, and clubs.

Megan hopes to launch next year with the support of the young ynnovators programme.

"Team Repair is on a mission to teach everyone to fix, and to instil a repairing mindset in the next generation to solve the e-waste problem of today," she added.

"We hope to inspire the next generation of diverse, sustainability-minded engineers and scientists, so they can solve the unknown future problems of tomorrow."

Megan, a former pupil of Invicta Grammar school in Maidstone, was recently named one of the 94 winners of the young innovator award winners.

The competition is run by the government''s innovation agency, Innovate UK and all winners benefit from a £5,000 grant, one-on-one business coaching and an allowance to cover living costs.

Emily Nott, from Innovate UK, added: "The level of creativity, passion, and commitment to positive change within our society and environment in this year’s Young Innovators Award winners is beyond inspiring.

Knowing that Innovate UK is creating opportunities and providing support to enable these young people from a wide range of different backgrounds across all parts of the UK to grow and develop their businesses makes me very proud. With the financial uncertainty this year brings, it’s fantastic to see these entrepreneurs starting businesses that will improve the world and boost innovation in the UK. We can’t wait to see what they will achieve next."

Science, Research and Innovation Minister George Freeman, said: “Innovation is about developing new and better ways of doing things - something young minds naturally do.

"Our Innovation Nation mission - and 50% increase in Innovate UK budget - is about investing in R&D in all parts of the UK to help drive economic investment and create exciting new career opportunities.

"The next James Dyson, Martha Lane Fox, Hayaatun Sillem or Richard Branson are out there. Helping, inspiring and supporting our top young innovators is the best investment there is."