More than just letters

Jessica Faulkner is an engineering degree apprentice working at GE Aerospace as part of her bachelor’s degree. In addition to her varied apprenticeship, Jessica also attends university one day a week where she is studying for a bachelor’s degree in electronic and computer engineering, although her journey into STEM started earlier.

“I have always been interested in electronics and software. I was able to take a computer science GCSE which is where I began coding, and I really enjoyed creating programmes,” she says. “I studied maths, physics and computer science for my A-levels and then began the engineering degree apprenticeship at GE.”

As soon as her apprenticeship began, Jessica started preparing for EngTech, and when it came to building her application, the time already invested started to pay dividends.

Fully supported by GE and determined to achieve her goals, Jessica quickly created a strategy for how to build her competence in preparation of an EngTech application in her third year. “During the first three years of my apprenticeship, I gathered evidence for EngTech. This involved doing weekly reviews of the work I had completed and matching it up to the different competencies. Every six months I would evaluate the areas where I needed to gain more evidence and create a strategy for how I could get the evidence required.”

Alongside her own drive to succeed, Jessica also received support from her employer as well as the IET to help kick-start her registration journey. Utilising the tools and guidance on offer, Jessica was set up with a professional registration adviser (PRA) to help her with the application. “I found the application process easy to follow and getting a PRA review helped me to understand gaps in my application and made sure it was up to a good standard.”

Jessica also found great benefit in her IET membership, which gave her access to key resources she would use for her application and beyond including Career Manager. “Becoming a member allowed me to gain access to additional resources to enhance my career development. I found Career Manager useful in giving me a guide on how to answer questions and to what capacity.”

There was also the benefit of being able to track CPD (continuing professional development), something Jessica took full advantage of and found useful as it allowed her to identify gaps in her knowledge and enrol in training to help close them.

After collating all her evidence and having the application checked over, Jessica submitted and shortly after was successful in gaining EngTech accreditation.

Having become successfully registered, she quickly saw the benefits of the time she had put into the process and so did her employer. “Becoming professionally registered has allowed me to become confident in my ability as an engineer. It is a recognition of all the work I have put into learning and growing, and in this way, my employer benefits as they gained confidence in my development within the apprenticeship programme.”

Knowing that she was well on track to achieve her professional goals and with a boost of confidence, Jessica was able to dedicate some time to her other interests including STEM initiatives. “I currently co-lead a scheme called RETHINK which is a scheme to help foster inclusion and diversity in STEM with the core values of belonging, education and growth. Our goal is to highlight opportunities in STEM to all, especially people who may not have considered them or had access to them before.”

While she has already achieved a lot in a short space of time, it is clear that Jessica plans to continue her path to success which for her is “enjoying the work I am completing and actively engaging in training to further improve my knowledge and skills.”