Why did you decide to do a degree?

I wanted to do a degree to allow me to progress my knowledge further and to gain the skills required to be able to offer innovative cutting edge solutions within automated systems.

Briefly describe your role and the types of projects/work you have been involved in

I mainly work in the manufacturing and development of automated production systems for a variety of industries. As part of working on a system I will be involved in installation, robotic programming, procurement and design.

What have you enjoyed the most about your studies?

It has been nice to be studying in an environment with lots of like-minded people who have chosen to go down an apprenticeship route and have real world engineering experience.

What is the most useful thing you have learnt?

To be honest I don’t think I could pin down one thing I have found most useful as the entire course has been beneficial and helped me to further my understanding of what I am doing at work.

What skills are you applying to your role?

One of the best examples I can think of is when I was having issues parts cracking during vibration testing after welding. The issue was suspected to be heat distribution during an automated welding process, I was able to design an experimental setup using strain gauges, thermistor and a Whetstone bridge arrangement to map the distribution of heat and the stresses within the part to work out if the welding process was causing excessive stresses in the part.

What are your ambitions for the future?

Short term I would like to complete my degree with the University of Warwick/ WMG and work hard to progress within my company to try and become a project manager. In the long term I would like to progress into senior management within FANUC with an open view to working globally within the company.

What’s the best piece of advice you could give someone thinking about doing AEP?

Go for it! The course is fantastic and the content is all relevant to industry. You should however be prepared to work hard and organise your studying around work and social commitments.