AWE Apprentice wins national award
An AWE apprentice has been crowned Maintenance Apprentice of the Year 2016.
At the UK Nuclear Skills Awards last week Samantha McRae (23) was announced Maintenance Apprentice of the Year.
Samantha has been very involved in a number of initiatives to promote Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers and apprenticeships whilst at AWE.
Her win comes in time for National Apprenticeship Week (#NAW2016) March 14-18, which is co-ordinated by the National Apprenticeship Service and is designed to celebrate apprenticeships and the positive impact they have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy.
Since joining the AWE Skills Academy in 2011 Samantha has been particularly keen to promote engineering apprenticeships to other youngsters, especially females.
In 2014 Samantha was recognised for her efforts to encourage other young people into apprenticeships when she was invited to meet then Deputy-Prime Minister Nick Clegg in London.
The AWE apprenticeship scheme has been running for nearly 65 years and 11% of the workforce are ex-apprentices. The scheme typically recruits 45 new apprentices each year.
Of her win Samantha said: "I am delighted to have won this award. The AWE apprenticeship scheme has given me real-live skills and knowledge with the future of a great job.
"I decided to apply for the AWE scheme because I wanted a job with a great career path and knew people who worked at AWE and said it was great. It ticked all the boxes for me. Now almost five years on - I couldn’t be happier. I hope this win will help inspire other young people into taking up an apprenticeship."
Kerry Barker, Head of Profession for Electronics Engineering and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology who joined AWE’s Apprenticeship programme in 1985 said:
"I want to say a huge congratulations to Samantha on winning this prestigious award. Samantha embodies everything AWE wants out of our apprentices. She excels in all she does, constantly going above and beyond the demands of the role and is an outstanding representative of AWE. I am sure Samantha’s commitment to enhance how AWE inspires the future generation of school leavers into a career in STEM is one of the reasons why she won this award. Her unwavering commitment to apprenticeships and promoting STEM roles to women is outstanding."
Pictured left to right Paul Burch AWE Chris Claydon ECITB (award sponsor), Samantha McRae and award host Simon Reeve.
