Shini Somara: What do you do?

Kate Todd-Davis: I’m a manufacturing engineering degree apprentice, creating and updating processes for the manufacture of critical aerospace components.

SS: What are the benefits of doing an apprenticeship?

KT-D: Engineering as a profession has always been the right fit for me. Despite being a good student in school, I always had in the back of my mind that work experience was more important for my future career than anything else. Attending a Russell Group university was my Plan B. Before completing my A Levels, I did some work experience at a nuclear power station in Hartlepool. This two-month experience was organised through a mentoring scheme and confirmed to me that there was no point in going back to the intensely academic environment of university for three years, when I was really keen to apply my knowledge, interest and expertise.

I subsequently took another work experience position at Caterpillar after my A Levels...