Career Progression Profile: Laura B

Laura, an Engineering Technician at Moog Aircraft Group, began her apprenticeship at Moog after graduating from local secondary school Tewkesbury School.

A talented engineer with a passion for programming, Laura was recently awarded second place at the GTA England Apprentice of the Year awards for Engineering, which received applications from 12,500 young engineers.

“Most of my family are into engineering, like my aunts and uncles,” said Laura, when asked about why she chose an apprenticeship. “I did work experience here when I was 13 or 14, and I enjoyed the atmosphere and working with the people here, so I decided to go for an apprenticeship.

“All the education here is paid for, so you don’t come out with any student debt, which was quite important to me,” Laura continued.

For Laura, a typical day at Moog begins at 7.30am: “When I start, I might have a few meetings to update everyone on the projects that we’re doing in the engineering bit of test equipment, and then I mostly get on with my programming. That involves programming the rigs that test servo valves. Once that’s done, I might test the program on one of the rigs that’s in use, and then get on with my own projects.”

Moog offers its apprentices plenty of opportunity for learning, and while completing her apprenticeship, Laura has been working on a current source box. “It’s been my project from start to finish, I’ve had to design the electronics, the enclosure, figure out how it’s going to work and program the software for it, and make sure everything’s organised and managed,” Laura explained.

As well as the freedom to learn at her chosen pace, Laura also enjoys the camaraderie that working at Moog brings: “The people – that’s what brought me back to Moog after my work experience. Everybody’s lovely, and if you need anything, then they help you out with whatever you need.”