I joined the Army Cadets as a teenager as my dream career growing up was the Armed Forces; unfortunately my application rejected at the first stage due to my deteriorating hearing.
My husband served his engineering apprenticeship with SSE; I was rather envious of what sounded like a fun and challenging career. My husband encouraged me over the years to consider Engineering.
My hearing was deteriorating quickly, and by the age of 20 I was diagnosed as profoundly Deaf; furthermore, I was advised that my hearing would continue deteriorate further and by the age of 50 I would have a total loss of hearing.
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In 2018, both my husband and myself had an established routine home schooling our 3 children; I decided it was an ideal time to enrol on a part-time online BTEC level 3 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering…..and I loved it! I subsequently enrolled on a full Electrical and Electronic degree at Glyndwr University Wrexham in September 2019.
How I got to where I am now?
Unconventionally! My first year at University was hard, I needed communication support using technology and a British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreter. Whilst challenging, all the hard work resulted in me achieving good grades across all my modules.
My confidence was again given a boost by being awarded an IET Horizons Bursary which made a huge difference financially which meant I could spend more time concentrating on my family and studies. I was also the Universities Engineering Society Chair
I was introduced to who is now my manager James Robinson through one the Universities academic team. He had suggested I maybe a good candidate for a Degree Apprenticeship as I was doing well in my studies and knowing James who was the former Industrial Engineering programme leader he felt I was an excellent candidate.
I was overwhelmed that an organisation were interested in recruiting me based on my ability rather than my disability, this was because even though I was achieving high grades at University I was still Deaf and I had genuine concerns of discrimination (unconscious bias).
I convinced myself I would not be successful when James found out I was Deaf. To my complete and utter surprise not only was he supportive but proactive in approaching both Volkerstevin and identifying sources of funding such as ‘Access to Work’ to support me in my new role.
He has always viewed me as a person without judgement – not a disability, not a female but simple a person. I could ask for no more, but he recently went one step further and signed up to a BSL course to support me even more.
I couldn’t be anymore lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.
What does my job involve?
As a Trainee Engineer with Volkerstevin working in the Water Industry, there is vast range of opportunities all under one roof from Mechanical to Process Engineering and my favourite, Automation! Volkerstevin has offered me the chance to be involved with change how they view all aspects Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The whole Volkerwessels group pride themselves on improving and promoting EDI issues and as a champion the monthly meetings are insightful.
There is a plethora of real-world soft skills that I use on a day to day basis, from organisation of meetings, equipment ordering and communication with multiple internal and external departments. When I started in my role in June 2020 it was during lockdown and making sure my digital communication skills were clear and polite was key. I am not able to use a normal phone so picking up the phone to ask a quick question was not an option. Luckily the funding through Access to Work provided access to an interpreter. Also due to the quick development to meet demand within online platforms, like Microsoft Teams, has enabled me to really engage in meets because of the accessibility features (I can’t live without the live captions during online meetings).
One of the key skills I have transferred from University is being organised. In order to keep myself on track with tasks I need to complete lists and digital post-it notes.
Now, for the actual Engineering! The tasks and challenges you think you will be doing in your job – all day, every day -when you are studying at University!
I attend a lot of highly complex meetings where I am there to observe and learn. These gave me an insight into the range of technology employed to operate a water treatment works. Some examples of these technologies; SCADA, remote access, Fieldbus technology (Profibus and Profinet). None of these things have or would be covered in this level of detail in any University course. In the 12 months I have been at Volkerstevin the learning has been exponential (exceeding anything I have ever done previously).
Working in the Process Industry is something I believe to be unique in the fact there is something for everyone, you can have a broad subject specialism or a very specific knowledge areas. Even though there is similarities between projects, inevitably every project has its own unique problems to solve. With Covid-19 having such an impact on the world I have spent a lot of time working from home, this has been a real challenge as starting a new job in a new area that is full of technical jargon, online publications such as the Process Industry Informer have helped considerably! I have a notebook where I still write down new works or acronyms (I call it my cheat sheet). I have been lucky in visiting a few sites and suppliers which has been really interesting as suddenly all the meetings I have sat through with all the detailed information starts to make sense when you get the chance to see it.
Whilst from an academic perspective, Engineering is formed from subjects such as Maths and Physics; in a very short period I have been involved in projects such as 2MW generator monitoring, Profibus device integration and Virtualised SCADA system development. This has involved a lot of critical thinking, reading and a lot of support from colleagues. Likewise, to be an Engineer it is not simply based on using the skills taught at University, every day is a learning day because there will always be a new challenge the only thing that changes as you progress through your career is that you will have more experience in troubleshooting and problem solving. My only regret is I wish I had jumped into engineering sooner! Women have a great deal to offer the field of Engineering and schools should be using the resources out there to share the joy of starting a STEM career with everyone.
