I used to be an apprentice at a small joinery business before joining South Staffs Water, but I wasn’t very happy in that business due to the lack of experience I was gaining. As I was an apprentice they would only give me simple jobs such as sweeping, nothing that really challenged me.

I moved to South Staffs Water in 2017, as an electrical engineering apprentice. The first two weeks of my apprenticeship consisted of making me and the other apprentice a bit more compatible, so we were shown around the major sites and took part in a few team building exercises.

I noticed a difference straight away. The team building exercises were great because they helped me get used to the new environment I was working in.

Also South Staffs Water sent me around all of the company working in every department, this was good because it gave me a huge understanding on how the company works, allowing me to understand everyone’s job role and gave me lots of work variation. Another great point about working in every department was that I could confidently choose where I wanted to work.

I feel like South Staffs Water really go above and beyond to support apprentices. Another example of this was when I was worried about gaining electrical experience in my job role, so South Staffs Water asked if I could get transferred to some of the companys we work with such as IWS, and U-control. This allowed me to gain the right experience for my college course.

I hope I can keep progressing in the company and gain as much experience as possible and hopefully be skilled enough to look at becoming an electrical technician here.