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Lydia James

Feel free to ask questions here if not on the chat site :)

Curriculum Vitae

  • Work History:

    Before my apprenticeship started and for the first 6 months of it I continued working as a sales assistant for a food retailer along side going to holiday parks and restaurants with my dance troupe.

  • Current Job:

    Apprentice manufacturing engineer

  • Employer:

    Alcoa

  • My Work

    I’m an apprentice in a manufacturing company who programs robots to make metal components for jet engines and turbine energy engines.

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    I’m a third year apprentice in the company so I spend 4 days a week on site and go to a local college on day release once a week to attend a B-Tec level 3 course in mechanical engineering.
    On site I help write programs for all the industrial robotic arms, write machine instructions and analysis scrap data for trends and improvement areas. We make aerospace grade metal components which are sent to be assembled in jet engines for aircraft and gas turbine engines for energy generation in Europe.

  • My Typical Day: My typically work day starts at 8 with my mornings spent updating my excel records, meetings (unfortunately) and analysisng scrap. In the afternoons I generally have a robot cell calling for attention or a long term project to continue chipping away at on my computer.

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    When I’m not on day release at college and I’m on site during the day I will spend a lot of time alternating between my computer desk and the shop floor.
    At my desk I’m generally either updating or analysing excel data for scrap causes to see if there are any process improvements I could suggest to the part engineers or using simulation software to test out new ideas for robot programs before running them on the cells.
    On the shop floor I work around with a team to investigate scrap parts caused by machine damage or human error to find trends or problems to correct. If I have a process improvement machine trial to test a new technqiue or material or there is a problem with one of the robot cells to correct I can spend several hours or all day trying to figure out the issue and resolve it. Both need a fair few production or scrap castings to test.

  • What I'd do with the money

    I would donate the money to local automation based STEM club

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Honest, sarcastic and methodical

      What's the best thing you've done in your career?

      When I got to work with the team testing the PLC software for the new robot cell.

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      I used to want to be a historian or a mathematician then I tried taking A levels and quickly changed that idea.

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      only if I was late for morning tutor group (it was way too early for me to function)

      If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

      Probably studying medieval English history

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      Deadmau5

      What's your favourite food?

      Italian, i would happily live off of pizza and tortellini for the rest of my life

      What is the most fun thing you've done?

      Performing on stage as a dance group at holiday parks and weddings. It’s exhausting for the long 45 minutes shows but so much fun to dust off the tutu and pointe shoes every now and then.

      Tell us a joke.

      I have not failed I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work :)

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