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Luih – Engineering apprentice at Madame Tussauds London:

I’m Luih, I’m a multi-skilled engineering apprentice and I work behind the scenes bringing activities and fun to life.

Courtney – Engineering apprentice at the London Eye:

My name's Courtney and I’ve always been fascinated with engineering. Now I’m involved in maintaining the safety of one of the UK’s most popular attractions.

Thomas – Engineering apprentice at Chessington World of Adventures Resort:

I’m Thomas and I never thought that I would get my dream job as an engineering apprentice. I’ve always absolutely loved engineering and theme parks, so when this apprenticeship came up it was absolutely brilliant.

Luih:

My apprenticeship involves everything from carpentry to electrical work, mechanical work, painting, plumbing and so much more.

Courtney:

My apprenticeship involves work-based experience which includes maintaining the ride, and keeping guests and my peers safe, whilst also attending college once or twice a week.

Thomas:

We do three days on site working on the park and working with the ride, and then we do two days at college.

Luih:

I do four days here at work, and one day at college studying a Level 3 engineering qualification.

Courtney:

In the morning we’ll do start up checks, so making sure that the rides stops if anything was to happen. Make sure our emergency intercoms inside the pods are working correctly.

Thomas:

My day as an apprentice involves coming in helping open the rides, ensuring they are ready and safe for guests to ride. So we’re going to check the structure, check all the wheels, ensure all of the split pins are in place as well as testing the function of the ride and ensuring the lap bars are working correctly.

Luih:

I’ll be doing some pre-start up checks on our ride, checking all the cabs are in good correct working order, and also looking at some of the audio-visual lights around the attraction, making sure they are working as they should.

Courtney:

The skills that make me good at my job are definitely communication. Using a drill and a screwdriver at home, I was able to transfer those skills over to my workplace and it’s really helped me develop as an engineer.

Luih:

One of the main skills I use is definitely my creativity, thinking and coming up with new ideas and projects for the attraction.

Thomas:

The skills I use in my job vary, for example we’ll use problem solving which really works for me, because I like to think outside the box and think of different ways of doing things.

Luih:

I’ve always been really hands-on and had a good attention to detail. Originally coming from an IT background, I had a lot of transferable skills that I could bring over to engineering.

Courtney:

I knew engineering was important to me and doing more hands-on tasks I felt more alive instantly. So doing that in a job everyday just makes everything better.

Luih:

Being able to create such memorable experiences for our guests everyday really makes me feel alive, and it’s such a great thing to be doing on a day-to-day basis at work.

Thomas:

I feel engineering is the right career path for me because I’ve always enjoyed problem solving, always enjoyed engineering and looking at how different things work. I get to put that into my job, and it just means that waking up every day is a lot easier, and it means you have that motivation to come into work.