Cara Kelly loves her apprenticeship at ATB Morley
Sixteen-year-old Cara Kelly secured a top apprenticeship at global engineering company ATB Morley on leaving UTC Leeds in summer 2018. Based in Leeds, the company manufactures motors and generators which power vital machinery in more than 60 countries around the world.
Cara is employed as a Mechanical Draughtsperson which involves making detailed technical drawings using Computer Aided Design software. Cara learned to use CAD software at the UTC.
She comments: “I work in the mechanical design office. The electrical department gives us lots of figures to deal with. The figures might relate to a problem that needs fixing, for example to do with a leak on a motor. We turn the figures into designs. There are loads of different parts to a motor, and we draw all the parts and connect them all together using Autodesk Inventor, which is CAD software. I really like that I can be creative with things and that I can think outside the box.”
Alongside her work at ATB Morley, Cara is also studying a Level 3 BTEC in Mechanical Engineering. Next year, she will go on to do a Level 4 HNC (Higher National Certificate) in Mechanical Engineering. She scored highly across the board in her GCSEs at the UTC, with Grade A in Biology and Grade A* in Computer Science, Maths and Physics.
Cara explains that she heard about the apprenticeship at ATB Morley through the UTC, who worked with an apprenticeships provider: “I had to have two interviews but I felt confident because we are used to speaking to employers at the UTC. We had mock interviews and I had also been out on work experience at Sound Leisure, which I really enjoyed.”
Cara’s week at Sound Leisure, a design and manufacturing company well known for producing jukeboxes, was a highlight of her time at the UTC and helped to prepare for her work at ATB Morley: “I did a day on Computer Aided Design and then I spent some time with the electronics team building a speaker. It was great.”
Winner of a UTC Leeds “Outstanding Achievement” award at the end of Year 11, Cara feels very positive about her time at the UTC: “I made loads of nice friends and I met lots of new people. It’s been an overall positive experience.”
