Three Teesside teenagers are gaining a year of valuable on-the-job experience with Northumbrian Water, as they work to develop their trades and work towards industry qualifications.
Charlotte Lax-Keeler, 18, from Redcar, is undertaking a year′s placement at Northumbrian Water′s Bran Sands Regional Sewage Treatment Centre, in Middlesbrough, as part of her Electrical Engineering Sub Diploma at TTE Technical Training Group in South Bank.
Tilly Maloney, 17, from Eston, and Samantha Wright, 18, from Marton, are both spending the year′s placement with the company′s Thornaby-based team. Tilly is studying towards a Mechanical Engineering Sub Diploma, while Samantha is taking an Instrumentation Diploma, both at TTE.
All three are in the second year of their studies and the placements are supported by the NWG Academy, Northumbrian Water′s programme to help ensure it meets future workforce requirements.
Charlotte said: "My granddad was an electrician and it appealed to me because I′ve never really had the urge to work in an office all day. My time with Northumbrian Water is giving me a real opportunity to get hands-on experience and learn from people who have been doing the job for a long time. I get to be logical and organised and make good use of my attention to detail."
Tilly added: "As part of the placement with Northumbrian Water, I′ve been working all across the Tees Valley area, helping with jobs like pumping station refurbishments, to make sure the region′s sewage gets from people′s homes to treatment works and protecting the environment. It′s great experience; I know I am delivering what people need, I am being practical and I get to understand how things work."
Samantha said: "I was originally interested in training in a mechanical trade, but my brother-in-law works in instrumentation and introduced me to that and I find it really interesting. I′ve been working on things like calibrating testing equipment and radios, making sure that the quality of equipment used to deliver services across the Tees Valley is kept up to standard. The work means I′m making a difference to other people in their jobs, I can be inquisitive and learn to solve what are really different puzzles."
Steve Grant, TTE Group Managing Director said: "Northumbrian Water are an excellent local employer who are committed to training and developing young people. TTE works closely with Northumbrian Water and we share a desire to give youngsters a great start in life. This will be great experience and really help with their engineering careers."