Leicester College recently played host to Future Faradays; a flagship initiative run by the National Electrotechnical Training (NET) electrical industry charity. Over 50 Leicester College T Level students on the Electrical Installation (Building Services Engineering Electrotechnical Engineering Specialism) C7260 course learnt all about the electrical industry, opportunities for apprenticeships and employability.

The highlight of the event was a skills showcase where the students delivered their presentations based on a brief to design improved lighting, which will contribute to achieving a carbon neutral system.

Damian Smith, in the first year of a two-year programme, joined us to talk about his time at Leicester College, his thoughts on his team’s performance at the Future Faradays event and offered advice for others who are considering taking up this T Level in the future.

He described his learning experience and said: “It’s very informative, everything is straightforward and you can really understand it. Even with zero knowledge, you can really develop your own understanding through the tutors. They share their own experiences of how they would go about the course.”

He has also benefitted from the conducive learner-friendly environment at Leicester College which he described as “really good”. “There are signs up which mean you can find your way around the college really easily and it was something I noted during the introduction.”

When he was asked what he liked most about studying his T Level course, he said: “It gives me the knowledge so I’ve got the power. I’ll go home knowing that I have been at college today and I learnt something in particular which for me, it means I could rewire a house or a room, just knowing that gives me that edge.”

Following his team’s presentation at the Future Faradays event, Damian said he had learnt quite a bit. “The task involving the presentation opened up a lot of ideas that we needed to come up with. My group did a lot of research and everything we spoke about was based on the knowledge gained in class.

“With today’s event, I benefitted from listening about everyone’s different experiences in the industry and learnt more about the different levels of being an electrician, from entry level all the way to the top of my field in different countries. I found that fascinating.”

He summed up and said: “If you are thinking about doing the same course, just go for it. Once you are on the course then you can learn and decide, ‘Right, I don’t really like this but I like this bit or that bit, so the best thing is to dive straight in’.”