TELL US HOW YOU FIRST BECAME AN APPRENTICE:
I went to an all girls school and wasn’t exposed to much of the engineering world, even though I always had the feeling that engineering was what I should do. Instead, I started a non-engineering career and had two children.
It was when I was working in a special educational needs school, my colleague told me she was leaving to pursue a career as a police call handler – something she had always wanted to do. My colleague was twice my age, and her courage gave me the kick I needed to follow my passion too. So, I googled engineering apprenticeships once more but this time I didn’t stop at the first hurdle, and I found Williams and secured a job.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CURRENT APPRENTICESHIP ROLE:
At Williams, we build tenders, which are the support boats for yachts. I’m very lucky as I get to work my way around the whole factory learning the process of building the boats for composites, to production to design. I’m currently splitting my week between a secondment on our Manufacturing Engineering team, apprenticeship job write-ups and final fit, which is where the tenders get finished and tested on our in-house ‘test pond’ or the lake.
TELL US WHY YOU WANTED TO BECOME AN APPRENTICE AMBASSADOR:
I love doing outreach and know how important it is. I believe that one conversation can change your life, and maybe if I had spoken to or seen someone like myself in an engineering role before the age of 30 I might have started my journey earlier. I want to help close the skills gap in engineering and manufacturing and encourage people of all ages and from all backgrounds to look at apprenticeships and show them that they are an amazing route into a career.
