Career Progression Profile: William W

Following his GCSEs, Will started as an apprentice on the shop floor, but has ambitions to become part of the Product Engineering team. As a keen petrolhead, Will’s looking forward to the opportunities that Moog’s apprenticeships can provide, including real practical experience on motorsport projects.

Will started his apprenticeship straight after finishing his GCSEs – “I was very nervous!” – and got stuck in on the shop floor from the off. He completed his Level 3 Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering qualification in just two years before starting his HNC qualification, which he’s currently working on.

“I chose an apprenticeship because I was always good at maths, but I didn’t have any interest in sixth form – I’ve always been more hands-on, more mechanical,” said Will. “I thought, well, what are my interests? I enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together, I enjoy hydraulics and mechanics and all that kind of stuff, and I thought, where do I know that’s got that? The answer was Moog.”

Will’s currently working within the Assembly & Test department as part of the service team. There, he’s working on assembling and testing valves for power stations, but is looking forward to moving ahead to the Motorsport division. “Moog is producing valves for a manufacturer of high end road cars – so I’ll be part of the team assigned to building those valves,” said Will.

“As I showed quite a lot of interest in the project, I’ve been given the opportunity to go all over the place. I got to visit a Formula Electric team to see how they use the same sort of valve in their cars, and then I went to the plant where they’re building all the high end cars, which was really fun!”

As a big fan of motorsport, Will competes at various hill climb events, and it’s this hands-on experience of tinkering with his own cars that has inspired a love of engineering, and a desire to start working in the Product Engineering department. “I’ve been working really closely with the product engineers as part of this current supercar project, and I really like the stuff that they do,” Will continued. “You get to see the results of what you’ve done, which is really exciting.”

As part of the Moog team for three years, Will’s already looking ahead to the future, and has really enjoyed working at Moog so far: “What I really love about Moog is that they appreciate that you’re human – they’re very thoughtful of their employees, they always want to know what you think and are always trying to help you.

“I know I’m working on the shop floor at the moment, but it’s already been put across to me that I might be moving on and doing more towards product engineering, so they always keep opportunities open – they don’t just say, this is your job role, stay here and do what we tell you. They don’t just employ people to do a job, but they look after them,” Will concluded.