To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting some of the women who are studying subjects in which there is a minority of female students. Here’s Morgan’s experience of an engineering apprenticeship course…

Morgan Kerridge began her apprenticeship in Electrical Maintenance Engineering in September 2021. Morgan was already working for an engineering company as an extrusion operator – a position she had achieved following a temporary role working on the shop floor.

Morgan used LinkedIn to grow her contacts and a member of the senior management team reached out and encouraged her to apply for the apprenticeship course. Morgan successfully applied and became a student at Leicester College whilst continuing her work as an apprentice.

Morgan says that the best thing about the apprenticeship is the confidence that it gives her. “The best part of my job is the way it’s helped me grow personally. My confidence has improved so much because of how accomplished I feel doing the job. To be able to attend a machine breakdown and be able solve it myself is a very rewarding experience.”

The theory side of the course has been a challenge for Morgan who, as an adult learner, hasn’t been in an education setting for a long time. “The most challenging part for me is learning new things as I started this job in my early thirties. It has been over 15 years since I was last at school, so learning again took a good deal of getting used to.”

Morgan, whose dad was an engineer, has always been interested in making things but didn’t know how to make a career out of it. She says: “At work and college I learned some basic engineering techniques, and this enabled me to pursue a more ambitious career and personal projects with my dad.”

After completing her apprenticeship, Morgan would eventually like to “be in charge of a team of highly skilled maintenance engineers.”

Morgan’s advice to anyone thinking of getting into engineering is to go for it. She said: “I always tell people to be brave, if you think you would be able to do something then you should give it a go. What do you have to lose? There are always support networks out there for engineers and the support network for women in engineering is becoming much bigger, which is great to see.”