After recently winning Rising Star of the Year for Yorkshire and the Humber at the National Apprenticeship Awards 2022 – we caught up with Sam to find out more about his pathway into a degree apprenticeship.
Studying towards a civil engineering degree while working in the industry
When I joined JBA six years ago as a CAD technician, I began my studies part-time as many others at JBA have. I completed my Level 3, HNC and HND qualifications in the first four years, and then moved on to the degree apprenticeship. I was able to join in the penultimate year of the degree apprenticeship. However, this meant I only had two years instead of five years to complete the professional development component, which was a lot of work!
I recently completed the academic portion of my degree apprenticeship qualifying with a BSc (Hons) First Class in Civil Engineering. I’m now preparing for the end point assessment, which if successful, will qualify me as an Incorporated Engineer (IEng) with the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE).
My advice for those considering a degree apprenticeship
Completing your education and professional development in parallel is a massive time commitment that many people don’t fully appreciate at the start. Keep the end goal in mind and understand how to achieve it. Breaking it down into manageable steps with the help of your Supervising Civil Engineer (SCE) and Delegate Engineer (DE) can help you stay focused throughout.
And you never know where your efforts will lead. I was very pleased to win the National Apprenticeship ‘Rising Star of the Year’ award for Yorkshire and Humber 2022.
Project work during my degree apprenticeship
I’ve been working on the East Hull Pump Station design and build project since 2019 as the CAD Lead. This was one of the first multi-disciplinary projects in which I was responsible for representing the majority of the design in 3D rather than 2D.
I then progressed to designing reinforced concrete flood walls and gates, completing technical calculations, reports and drawings, whilst developing processes to help guide others during the design and procurement of these structures.
More recently, I’ve moved on to a Project Lead role for the Skeffling Pump Station design where I manage multiple design disciplines to ensure the delivery of the scheme is of high quality, on programme, and on budget.
We are proud of our successful and rapidly expanding apprenticeship programme with opportunities from Level 3 to Degree across Business Support, Software and Technology, Engineering, Environment and Sustainability. Interested? Click here to find out more.
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