Lois Medley, 17, began her two-year apprenticeship last September with WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering services firm whose contracts include the Shard, High Speed 2 and London Bridge station. She had considered staying on for sixth form after GCSEs, but decided against it: “I didn’t want to be stuck in the classroom for another two years. I wanted to get out there and start a career. I wanted to be in the real world.”
At her all-girls school, her class was shown videos about apprenticeships, but it was a family friend working for WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff who suggested she apply to the firm. The conversation “really grabbed my attention”, she says, and so she read up more on the company and decided that this was the route for her. She had a “mini interview” over the phone, and was then invited in for a day-long interview at the firm’s Chancery Lane office.
Medley was one of 43 apprentices, allocated to different teams, to join in September. She is based in the rail team, which is engaged in the Crossrail project, a high-capacity railway network for London and the south-east. Earning £15,000 a year, Medley works four days a week in the firm’s Devonshire Square office, acquiring engineering skills, such as the use of computer-aided design software to create drawings of cables. “It’s just a different world to school – you’re treated as an adult,” she says.
She particularly likes being involved in a real-life engineering project: “It’s real buildings and real stations that my team is working on. One day I can be a part of one of those stations and say I helped participate in that.”
Medley attends South Thames College one day a week, where she is studying for a level-3 BTec in building services engineering. She is also studying for EngTech (engineering technician) and IEng (incorporated engineering) qualifications and will receive a bonus once she achieves them. Medley says she enjoys college because it’s related to what she’s doing every day: “We create a portfolio based on the work we do on a day-to-day basis.” This portfolio is then used as evidence towards her qualification.
Once she has completed her apprenticeship, Medley hopes to stay with WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff to take an advanced apprenticeship and perhaps even a degree apprenticeship.
In the meantime, Medley is keen to spread the word by taking part in the Brathay Apprenticeship Challenge and going back into her old school to encourage others to follow in her footsteps. “We need more girls in engineering,” she says.
