With National Apprenticeship Week happening recently, we’re excited to showcase our latest apprentice, Vanessa! Joining through our team through South West Durham Training, Vanessa has come to learn new skills, gain experience in all the sectors we provide for and learn more about what a career in engineering entails.
In just six months, she’s taken to working across many facets of our factory: soldering PCBAs in production, assembling box builds and getting involved with testing. She’s also worked hard getting up to speed with our Surface Mount machines and overseen AOI.
Most of all, she’s really shining in our machine shop, commenting that it’s her favourite area she’s worked in so far. “I like how hands on it is […] It’s the satisfaction of creating a finished product from raw materials.” Vanessa says she’s always taken to being fully involved in the process and using the equipment in our very own shop has helped to propel her skillset.
Most recently, she’s been challenged to create a new show piece to display at events – a special PCB Easter Egg (our very own Fabergé!) Take one look at it and you’ll be amazed at the craftsmanship that’s gone into it!
She tells us that creating the Egg was a challenge due to the nature of the using PCBs as the main material for the build. The boards are thin and not exactly designed to be bent and turned into structures, but she has persevered and succeeded! To get the desired effect we wanted from our new show piece, Vanessa has committed to learning how to operate the CNC machine, learning how to use G-Code to program precise cuts and consistent shaping!
Her piece debuted at Electech Innovation Cluster‘s 2026 Conference on our exhibition stand (let us know if you saw us!) and will be taken to many events to come, as long as they’re surrounding easter time!
We’re glad to have Vanessa with us for the coming years and are excited to see what other creative projects she’s got in store. If you are or know someone that is interested in starting an apprenticeship, get in touch – we’d love to help you in your engineering journey!