After leaving Rye Hills, Joshua Owens enrolled himself onto a series of engineering courses at Redcar and Cleveland College in order to gain HND level qualifications in both electrical and mechanical engineering.
He made the decision to leave his full-time employment so he could study, attend college and ultimately gain higher qualifications. Joshua’s hard work and determination paid off and he was offered an apprenticeship with Tees Components which is based in Skelton, the company also offered to support him in his further studies.
In an interview with Redcar and Cleveland College Joshua said: “I have been coming to Redcar and Cleveland College since I left school with the aim of gaining as many qualifications as I could in engineering.”
“I did have a job, but wanted to better myself, so gave it up to do the HND course. I think one of the reasons I was offered the job at Tees Components was because I put myself through all of these courses and didn’t wait for a company to do it for me.”
He then added: “I’m really enjoying it. Part of my job is to build PLC (programmable logic controllers) cabinets for ships and once I am fully trained up I will be building them and then travelling overseas to install and service them, so it’s a great opportunity. Putting in the work has definitely been worth it.”
Sharon Lane, General Manager of Tees Components, said Josh’s positive attitude made him stand out.
She added: “The fact that Josh had shown such initiative in putting himself through all of these qualifications really impressed us. He’s a self-starter and his CV is excellent because he has applied himself so well. When we interviewed Josh, he came across as genuine and hardworking and, crucially, he had done both electrical and mechanical engineering. We are finding more and more that we need people with both skill sets. Josh has a great career ahead of him.”
Sharon said she would urge other young people to show initiative: “When we are looking to interview people for Apprenticeships, we will always give an interview to someone who has had a paper round because we feel that if they can get up at 6am to deliver papers; they have a good attitude,”
“These are the kind of self-starters we are looking for, so Josh was perfect.” said Sharon.
Brian Lewis, an Engineering Tutor at Redcar and Cleveland College, said he was delighted that things had worked out well for Josh.
“Josh is proof that if you work hard and gain the right qualifications, there are great jobs and careers out there,” said Brian.
“He had a full-time job and could have sat back and done nothing more, but he chose to go on and better himself and that resulted in this great job offer. I’m really proud of him.”
For more information about Tees components including online application forms for Apprenticeships visit the website: http://www.teescomponents.co.uk/welcome-to-tees-components-p-2.html
Click the link for information on courses available at Redcar and Cleveland College including Engineering: http://www.cleveland.ac.uk/courses