"At 18, having attempted a year at sixth form, followed by a year at college studying mechanical engineering, I had dropped out of both having found myself disenfranchised with the traditional education model. So with my GCSEs in hand I decided to enter the workforce. 5 years later I found myself further dissatisfied with dead end jobs and hungry for a little more purpose in life. I was able to land myself a Level 3 apprenticeship working for J.Murphy & Sons as an Apprentice Site Engineer.

Being able to earn, and meet my financial commitments while also gaining the academic pre requisites for my role was a fantastic opportunity for me at this time, and I found myself motivated to pursue a HNC /HND upon completion of my initial apprenticeship. Following completion of my HND I was made aware of how the government levy could be used to fund degree apprenticeships. I began searching for academic institutions which would offer a civil engineering degree apprenticeship, contacting university departments directly. Following further discussion with my employer I was able to secure myself a position at the University of Warwick. However, finding degree apprenticeships now is a lot easier as the GOV.UK website has a database of courses offered.

Studying a degree apprenticeship with Warwick afforded me the opportunity to further enhance my technical expertise in the field of Civil Engineering and apply it practically at work, enhancing my experience as a professional and my theoretical understanding. The apprenticeship offered many challenges over its duration, balancing full time work commitments, academic workload and completing my initial professional development to support my membership application with the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) at times has been difficult, especially on top of family commitments.

However, having recently being award both a first class honours, and Incorporated Engineer (IEng) status with the ICE, I can say these rewards have made these challenges worthwhile. Furthermore, these accomplishments have contributed to being promoted to a Senior Engineer position at work. Additionally, having no student debt is one of my favourite benefits to pursuing a DA route. Furthermore it offered me a way to learn, then apply what I learned, something the traditional route doesn’t offer.

I can’t take all the credit, and I am truly grateful to my tutors, colleagues, mentors and managers for their support, guidance and encouragement throughout the DA. Making my personal and professional growth possible. One of the greatest benefits of a civil engineering DA, is having access to such a broad network of support, as the conditions of the levy require that you get suitable on the job experience, a mentor (SCE) to support your professional development application, in addition to having access to experienced professionals within the industry and lecturers all capable of helping me understand difficult engineering concepts.

My employment experience while on the DA has seen me working on Gas infrastructure projects for Clients such as National Grid (Now National Gas) at the Peterborough & Huntingdon Compressor station upgrades (£113 million) and Cadent on the AGI Preheat Upgrades (£16 million) offering experience in; temporary works, site engineering works for drainage, concrete, road construction, ducting and earthworks, and development of safety critical documentation to meet legislative requirements. I’ve also had the opportunity to travel across the country working in locations such as London, Kingslynn, Cambridge, Portsmouth and more recently Wales.

As for future ambitions, I’ve been considering routes to Chartership including the ICE’s further learning examination, or obtaining a masters to meet the academic requirement. Though I wanted to take a short break from academia, as I’ve been back in education now for 10 years and am treating myself to a well earned break."

Jamie, Civil and Infrastructure Degree Apprenticeship graduate