Luke Curnock, 24, has successfully completed his Level 3 Signalling Design Apprenticeship at Siemens Mobility Limited and is now continuing further education to complete his HNC in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Wiltshire College.

Siemens Rail Automation, a Siemens Mobility business, is a part of the global technology company which supplies modern control systems for mainline and metro railways in the UK and overseas.

Luke can you tell us about your early education and what bought you to an apprenticeship?

I studied A-Level Dance, Drama and IT and had a place ready at Bath Spa University to train to become a Drama teacher, but things couldn’t have turned out any differently! I decided to work for a year and deferred my place at Bath Spa. I was already working part time at Whitehall Garden Centre; I took up an IT role there and found I really enjoyed it. When a family friend told my Mum about this apprenticeship, I decided to consider it and applied to expand upon my skills in IT.

What does your day to day job involve and what would you say is the best part about an apprenticeship?

I work as an assistant control system engineer which means I have variety in my role, I create electrical wiring drawings for signalling control systems, I write and test data, and build hardware. My job means I also visit our other offices, for example I’ve been to Cardiff, Doncaster and Birmingham. I feel I have learnt a lot in a working environment, much more than when I was in my first year at College studying full time. I have enjoyed the hands-on aspect of my apprenticeship, being in Engineering that is the way forward. My advice would be to consider every option, I was so sure I would do something in relation to Dance and Drama but that wasn’t the case, make sure you get good Maths & English results and you can get into anything, it is ok to change your mind.

You recently attended a careers fair at your old secondary School, John Bentley, can you tell us about that experience?

I did, I enjoyed meeting students and informing them about the course I did and what it means to work at Siemens Mobility. I recorded 60 engagements; most of those were from Year 10 and Year 11 students. It was really nostalgic to go back to my old School as well!