DCG Success Stories

Former Derby College welding student Lizzy Henry is proud to be one of just 20 applicants nationally to join Doosan Babcock’s first year  apprenticeship scheme.

Around 500 people applied to become an apprentice with the leading power engineering systems business – and of the handful selected, five were from the same level 3 welding course at the College’s Ilkeston site.

Lizzy, who is 19 and from Allenton, puts this success partly down to the support and encouragement she and her fellow students received from college staff.

She said: “Sean Smith, our tutor, was really helpful when we were applying to Doosan. He told us about the apprenticeships and gave us an idea of what to expect from the interview – what questions we might be asked.”

And, she added, this help and support wasn’t confined to the course content.

“Our tutors were great. Sean didn’t just teach us about engineering. We learned life skills as well, such as how to manage money, pensions and the different roles we could aim for – things I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”

Lizzy, who is finding her apprenticeship challenging but enjoyable, would like to see more girls training for a career in engineering.

She said: “There are four girl apprentices in my year at Doosan. That’s more than there were on my College course, which is different, but there still aren’t many girls training to be welders. It’s time that changed.

I’m from a big family and have four sisters. They’ve seen how much I like my work and have started asking about jobs in engineering.”

Lizzy’s longer-term goal is to aim aim high and work her way up from coded welder to supervisor once she’s qualified and had a few years on-site experience.