Su Bartlett, Quality Assurance Technologist

Su is 25 and qualified as a mechanical engineer after doing a three-year apprenticeship at Corby.  Here is her story.

Proving you can do it!

I left school in 1996 and went to Tresham College in Corby to do a basic training in Engineering for a year.  Towards the end of my year at college I got a bursary from Corus (then British Steel) and I started my three-year modern apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer in September 1997.

There were six of us that started our apprenticeship from college and I was the only girl.  During our apprenticeship we were moved around the works every six months or so to gain experience in different areas including the mills and workshops.  Jobs included changing gearboxes, bench work, burning and welding. 

I was also put through courses like forklift, crane driving and scissor lifts and during the last few months of my apprenticeship I did shift work.  Out of all the areas I worked in I enjoyed the welding and fabrication side more although general work of getting stuck in to the dirtiest jobs was also good.

Being a girl in a man’s world is quite daunting especially when you are a 17 year old girl amongst hundreds of guys.  The hardest thing about being a girl in this environment was having to work ten times harder than the guys in the manual work plus the academic side to prove that I was able to do the jobs given to me.  To start off with I think I was a novelty factor but the guys knew I was serious about my apprenticeship and were very friendly and helpful and had accepted me as one of them.

There were times when I struggled with some of the manual work as it is very heavy industry but with the help of the guys I managed.  I didn’t want to be treated any different from the guys as I came in to this job to do the same as them.  I completed my apprenticeship and became a qualified engineer in 2000, completing college work at the same time.

This is my ninth year at Corus Tubes.  Now I work as an E Band manager in the Quality Assurance Department where I deal with work including rejects from the mills, complaints from customers, weld approval tests and risk assessments.