Tia Steadman
Study Type: School Leaver Vocational
Study Location: The Roundhouse
Subject Studied: Engineering
Welding apprentice Tia wants to see more girls in engineering
Tia Steadman – one of three DCG Welding students soon to start an apprenticeship with leading nuclear services company Cavendish Nuclear – would like to see more girls go into engineering.
As a young girl Tia, now 20, was inspired to become an engineer by her grandad who worked on the trains.
She joined the level 2 Performing Engineering Operations (PEO) course at the Roundhouse straight after school then moved on to the level 3 in welding as she loved learning to weld while on the PEO.
Tia said: “There were only two girls on my level 3 Welding course – me and my friend Lizzy who is on a welding apprenticeship with Doosan Babcock in the West Midlands.
“Although there are more women in engineering these days, it’s still a career that attracts more boys than girls.
“It would be good to see more girls taking it up but sadly many lack the confidence to do a subject which they see as being more for boys.”
After undergoing a series of gruelling tests and interviews, Tia was awarded one of just 12 places on Cavendish Nuclear’s national apprentice welder scheme in Somerset and starts her college-based first year in a few weeks’ time.
Once she’s completed that she’ll have three years’ welding training on site at UK nuclear power plants.
Tia added: “It was a tough application process and I found it so nerve wracking. I was really scared I wouldn’t get an apprenticeship place but I did get selected.
“What I’m looking forward to the most as a Cavendish Nuclear apprentice is the chance to train properly and become an experienced welder.
“It’s early days as yet as I’m just starting out but I’d like to progress in the industry and work as a welding inspector.”
It was a tough application process and I found it so nerve wracking. I was really scared I wouldn’t get an apprenticeship place but I did get selected. What I’m looking forward to the most as a Cavendish Nuclear apprentice is the chance to train properly and become an experienced welder. It’s early days as yet as I’m just starting out but I’d like to progress in the industry and work as a welding inspector.