Taking the apprenticeship route
Aimee is a mechanical design apprentice at Nuvia, based in Warrington. From starting her role at Nuvia, Aimee joined Prospect straight away “to make sure that younger voices are heard within the company,” she says.
Aimee appreciates why young people should be involved in their union and as a part of Prospect’s Young Professionals Network, she thinks it’s important for everyone to get on board.
“I think it’s important to get young people on board so that you’ve got a range of different voices speaking throughout the company to focus on the wider variety rather than just one sector of the industry,” says Aimee.
Aimee’s focus is on solutions to problems that they may have on a nuclear facility so she works with a lot of mechanical equipment on plants to design a solution to fit the client.
She says: “I’m currently working on a new build project at a nuclear facility where we’re focusing on encapsulating radioactive waste so that it’s not harmful to the user or the operator.”
Being on the apprentice scheme has really benefitted Aimee and she has gained some really valuable experience, ‘it’s being proud of all the achievements I’ve managed to achieve all the way through it. She joined Nuvia straight after finishing school as she knew she wanted to enter into this industry and her apprenticeship has really allowed her to do this.
Can I join Prospect while I’m an apprentice?
She really loves working in the nuclear industry, ‘It’s so bespoke that each problem has its own solution and it’s really interesting to be able to get involved with.’ And Aimee can’t wait to do more work with both Nuvia and Prospect.
For Aimee, joining a trade union as really helped her have her voice and her opinions heard, ‘I think the biggest part of being in a trade union is being able to have a voice overall, if you’ve not got a voice your opinions not really heard so it’s important to get your opinion across using the right channels and the union helps you utilise that.’
Aimee has got involved with the YPN at Prospect which has benefitted her in many ways so she can progress in the career, ‘The YPN has given me a chance to be able to expand my skillset so being able to get out and meet people I wouldn’t usually meet, developing my communication skills and also building up a bit of confidence to be able to go out and speak for the issues that we’ve currently got.’