Industry needs to promote apprenticeships, says award winner
We speak to Jordan Tyers, a Marine Engineer Apprentice with BMT and the winner of the 2024 IMarEST Lady Hamlyn Award.
Tell us about yourself
I joined BMT as an apprentice during lockdown in 2020. At the time, I was in sixth form doing my A-levels but left to take the apprenticeship. This is now my fifth year, and I'm nearing the end of the programme. BMT supported me through my qualifications, and I’m now finishing my Level 5 HND, which is equivalent to a foundation degree in engineering.
I work four days a week with one day release at college to do my [studies]. I’ve had loads of opportunities to do a lot of interesting marine work with the company. I've done hands-on design work with chances to get on board different ships from the Royal Navy and RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary). I’ve also travelled to Belfast, Canada, and the South Coast [of England]. It’s been a great experience.
Do you think the maritime industry could do more to promote apprenticeships?
At BMT, we always try to promote apprenticeships and important topics like women in engineering, but I think there is more [the industry] can do to promote the opportunities. I’ve gone through the apprenticeship route now, and I’d always recommend that route, but frankly, my brother went through the apprenticeship route. He was a bit older than me, so I had that awareness, but I don't know if I didn't have my brother go down that route, I would have been so aware of all the apprenticeship options.
How did you get the IMarEST Lady Hamlyn Award?
My line manager, who was doing his Chartership, and a couple of my colleagues at BMT, who are involved in IMarEST, told me about it. I submitted an 800-word personal statement about what I’ve done in my apprenticeship, what my career goals are, and the benefits of the award. So I'm trying to keep everything quite brief. Then I got an email one morning saying I’d won it, which was a very pleasant surprise!
What difference has winning the award made for you?
It was really nice because I did get recognition at work for it and also got recognition from the Institute. You also get a prize fund with the award which was really useful because this came as I was doing my Level 4 certificate, my HNC, so I put that towards some software and a laptop to help me progress with that. It cut out a lot of stress because I was always quite stuck in the old ways of pen and paper, so it was quite nice to get a bit more digital and make my life a bit easier.
How important is it to have awards like this?
It's nice because I feel a lot of the stuff out there is targeted at the higher-level engineers we have – people who are publishing papers and have all that knowledge already. It is encouraging to see the Institute are thinking about the younger generation.
What would you say to someone who was nervous about applying for awards like this?
Just go for it. There's no real negative that can come from it.
It's also a good time to reflect on everything you've done and then try and condense that into 800 words to really sell yourself. It was really nice to have that time to sort of reflect and look back at the stuff I've done over the four or five years and put that down in black and white.
And you might wind up winning the award and getting all that recognition, which is a lovely feeling.
Enter the 2025 Lady Hamlyn Award – the application deadline is 30 April.
Tell us what you think about this article by joining the discussion on IMarEST Connect.
Image: Jordan Tyers; credit: BMT.
