Meet the new Herga Engineering Apprentice

The development of new engineering talent is really important to the success of any business, at Herga, we recognise this and now we are expanding our team to welcome Kelly Ball. Kelly will be taking on the position of Engineering Apprentice.

Here is her story

Who am I?

“Hi, my name is Kelly Ball and I'm seventeen years old. I began working in retail alongside my school studies and I eventually completed upper school with 12 GCSEs at A* to B grade in 2016. 

When I finished school I ended up taking on an apprenticeship in the Dental industry but left this to pursue an apprenticeship in Engineering. I felt I had more of a passion for the sector, the job role was more suited to me and it was something I had always aspired to go into. In my free time I also gained a management qualification.”

Why did I choose an Engineering Apprenticeship?

“I chose to do an engineering apprenticeship because it's a challenging job role that can be pressurised, varied and thorough. This appealed to me - I like challenges and find more job satisfaction where I can be tested; I find that challenging tasks allow you to use skills that you have in new ways, and encourages new skills. 

I chose engineering because I thoroughly enjoyed my Graphics GCSE and my Art GCSE - subjects which I feel passionate about and believe could help create a good engineer; I feel as though engineering is a career that allows me to utilise the things I love, along with logical thinking, and therefore feel that it is the career for me.

The idea of working to a design brief and product specification in a professional environment appeals to me as I have previously worked this way within my Graphics GCSE and really enjoyed it. I have found that I work very well when given goals, outlines, and targets - working in this type of environment is ideal for me.

I also have experience in providing customer service and care. I enjoy this thoroughly, which is another component of the Engineering Apprenticeship job role.

Why HERGA?

I chose to work for Herga because they value development in their employees; this is something that I find really important within a company, especially when taking on an apprentice. This made them the perfect business for me to join. 

Due to my previous experience in a Dental environment, I am personally interested in the medical products that Herga manufacture and design, as I have had the chance to utilise similar products (such as footswitches) and systems whilst working in a medical environment. 

I also admire the broad range of products that Herga produce and feel that this is particularly useful in terms of an apprenticeship as the varied products will allow me to experience different forms of engineering and gain more skills here than in another business.

Another reason I chose Herga was because I heard that the Variohm apprentices visited here in order to finish their NVQ. I was impressed at the sheer amount that they could achieve here."

Women in Engineering

You may have seen our previous blog posts about women in engineering. This is a big talking point at the moment and we are very happy to have a female Engineering Apprentice. Currently women only make up 9% of the engineering industry and we want to encourage more women to take on these roles.

Kelly says; “I am pleased to be joining the 9% of women in Engineering – It makes me proud to see that, not only myself, but more women are beginning to join this sector. It is the beginning of seeing an environment that has lacked female employees (in the past) become a more diverse environment – this is a wonderful narrative for such an important and exciting career. It will be interesting to see how this statistic progresses in the upcoming years, and I hope that more women will choose to enter such a rewarding career.’’

Karen Docking has been working in our Engineering Department for over 25 years. She is delighted to have another woman working in engineering with her “I am really pleased that Kelly has joined our Engineering team.  It is nice to see that there are young women out there who are eager to have a career in engineering, and our business can benefit from more women, with different backgrounds and perspectives who bring fresh and innovative ideas to the table”.

Herga continues with the training and development of apprentices that supports the ongoing strategic staff development, helping to reduce risk, maximise site quality and manage costs as well as provide structure to new product development on time.

Paul K Edwards – Head of Engineering and Quality says “I’m so pleased Kelly has joined Herga and we all really look forward to her ongoing development and contribution in Engineering and beyond. Kelly is now working on her Performing Engineering Operations Technical Support Level 2, hoping to complete in February 2019. Development of new talent into Herga is really important for our successful future and new product realisation. Good luck Kelly!”