I’d always revelled in the idea of a career that allowed me to work with my hands but, until recently, I never put much stock in that happening. Having always done well at school the natural progression to university seemed obvious – there I studied English Literature but quickly became bored of the course, with each day feeling much like the one before. Eventually I’d built up enough maturity to ignore the social conventions that made women working manual jobs an abnormality, and so applied to Severn Trent for their Heavy Vehicle Technician apprenticeship after a few searches on the Government’s Apprenticeship Finder website.

At only 4 months into the course there are limited tasks that I’m able to do myself – I do get to change a lot of lightbulbs though! One of my favourite things about the job is the unpredictability of it; I can be filling up trucks with AdBlue and changing their oil one day then climbing up inside them to help change an A-frame the next. Mostly, I assist my mentor with whatever he has been assigned but I am starting to be trusted with basic jobs, like changing filters, which are then checked by another technician.

The team I work with at Staverton are invaluable to my learning and overall enjoyment of the job. Despite the volume of work those around me need to complete whilst being conscious of deadlines, they always find the time to make sure I understand what I’m doing and they let me do as much of the task, as is appropriate for my ability. The size of the company means that there is always something new and exciting going on, so it really feels like you’re a small part of a bigger whole.