“My first ‘real-world’ experience came through a Year in Industry scheme with a subsidiary company of National Grid. They surveyed powerlines using helicopters equipped with lasers; I then created CAD models using the data. The work I did was really valued and it fuelled my enthusiasm to apply to become a sponsored student.

“I’m on my second summer placement now, in Overhead Lines. The value of the practical work during my placements is really brought home when I go back to university. Last year, when I returned to my course one of the first projects was to build a 1.2m scale model of a bridge. It turned out that the towers share the same structural characteristics; the triangular struts and stress points were the same on the both structures. It’s this kind of thing that brings the theoretical work to life; it’s what makes it click into place.”