What made you choose an apprenticeship as a career route?
I struggled with the decision about what to do next when I was leaving sixth-form, and was looking at what options were available. I had a basic interest in engineering, but wasn’t sure where I wanted to specialise. Working on an apprenticeship scheme has given me the time and opportunity to build my experience and enable me to make a clear choice about the next steps in my career.
What is your day-to-day role like, has it changed much due to the pandemic?
My apprenticeship involved 3-month placements in various departments within the business. Over the past couple of years, this has included a mix of on-site and home working, as I have moved through the different placements and as restrictions have changed over time.
In my day-to-day role, I am currently working on C# programming in a software final placement. My day is mainly made up of researching and learning programming concepts, and applying this to develop and test my own code. I also spend time completing my NVQ and HNC qualifications as part of the apprenticeship. As I need access to equipment in the labs most of my time is currently spent on site; however, I still have the flexibility to work from home when required.
What are the interesting programmes you’ve worked on during your apprenticeship?
What I have found most interesting is the programmes you can work on outside of my placements. For example, I have become part of the Tempest Early Careers Network, which has been set up to increase collaboration between young people from the Tempest partner organisations. Through this programme, I have been able to meet people from across the industry and work collaboratively on the projects set for us.
With my team, I have been working on how the organisations involved in Tempest can help meet the UK’s sustainability goals. As a group, we are all very enthusiastic about this challenge and are making great progress by researching and reporting ways of improving sustainability. I hope that, in time, our work can have a meaningful impact on the carbon emissions of the programme and bring about better consistency and collaboration between our organisations.
What has been the best thing about your apprenticeship, has anything surprised you?
I think what has surprised me most is how varied the apprenticeship programme is. Not just in the variety of projects we work on, but in the amount of different roles you get to experience. I am not sure how many people realise that apprenticeship would include software engineering, for example.
I have worked with products in all stages of their life-cycles and gained a great perspective of the engineering process through this. Each placement is different to the last and you never know what to expect when joining a new department.
Is there anyone that you would like to thank or that you’d say has been the biggest influence on your success?
It’s hard to pick out a single person who has influenced me most, but I’d like to thank the placement supervisors who have welcomed me into their departments and taken the time to work with me. You always feel valued in a placement and can get straight on with work on real world projects from day one.
What have been your biggest achievements at Leonardo so far?
I would consider my proudest achievement so far to be the success of the Virtual Work Experience Programme that I was a part of creating. Due to the pandemic, we have been unable to run our usual course for local schools, so we developed a virtual programme that can be completed using a robotics kit sent out to the students to work on remotely. This was designed to encourage engineering and problem solving skills, and culminated in them navigating an assault course using their MiniBit robot.
I consider this to be my biggest achievement because we worked against a tight deadline to produce a worthwhile programme for the students, and it was great to hear their feedback once they had completed the challenges. The Virtual Work Experience Programme has now been modified by Leonardo’s STEM team at one of our other UK sites to be rolled out to their local schools as well.
Would you recommend an apprenticeship to people looking to make a first step in their career?
I would recommend the apprenticeship scheme for anyone beginning their career and looking to build a new skillset. I’ve been able to continue studying and gaining qualifications while also gaining experience in the workplace. I believe it has been a great way of starting a career with a company like Leonardo, and the apprenticeship programme puts you on the trajectory towards a full time role with the company.