Helen Cole, BP/IET Faraday Lecture Scholarship winner
An active person at school, Helen was involved in many projects which led to her choosing a career in engineering...
Helen is currently coming to the end of her first year of university at Warwick where she is working towards a Masters in Electronic Engineering.
"I was involved in a lot of extra curricular activities at school including BAA, Young Engineers and I lead a team for the Engineering Education Scheme doing a project for Qinetiq," she tells the IET. "I hadn't originally intended on doing engineering but really enjoyed all the projects I got involved in so decided to follow this route. After school I spent nine months working at IBM programming for one team and then leading and coordinating the language testing of one of IBM's products."
Helen plans to use her time at university to see what areas interest her the most, and then decide on which aspect of engineering she'd like to specialise in. She does, however, have some specific aims in mind.
"I would like to return to working for a Blue Chip company when I leave university and then potentially progress to technical management. Potentially a few years after leaving university I would be interested in working in a smaller company doing something different."
Helen's education and career has also been helped by her scholarship win - last year she was awarded the BP/IET Faraday Lecture scholarship. This is worth £3,000 per annum, tenable for the period of her course, and in addition, once she has completed her Masters, she will be able to use the designatory title of 'Faraday Scholar'.
"I heard about the scholarships through the IBM gap year scheme. I was encouraged to apply by the founder of the scheme I was on and was involved in encouraging other gap year students to apply. I decided to apply as I had nothing to loose but potentially a lot to gain from doing so, and I was also interested to see how I would actually do. The extra money and being able to put this on my CV was fairly attractive as well.
"When I found out I had been awarded a scholarship I was fairly shocked as I didn't think I would be in the running for one of the larger awards. However it was only when I was at the award ceremony that I found out how prestigious my award was. I couldn't quite believe it but felt honoured to have received it. "
Looking forward, Helen believes her IET membership will be of great use to her through the next three years at university and then after, when she enters the graduate world.
"I think it's great that there is a separate area for students with articles aimed more at people our age. I haven't yet used the careers or study skills but they look very helpful for when I will need them. I think it's great to be able to get advice from such a large and well known organisation.
"I receive the magazine and enjoy reading it when I have time to sit and read it properly, but the small articles are great for when time is limited. I think the life skills training and networking events will be fantastic in the years to come.
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