Ryan Sharkey

Why University of Bolton

Close to home and completed HNC in Civil Engineering here in 2009

Experience

After mentoring younger apprentices at Arcadis, showing them how to use AutoCAD software as well as helping them get to grips with other principles of Highway Design and Civil Engineering, I was inspired by their enthusiasm and the route they were taking to become fully qualified/incorporated civil engineers. I researched apprenticeships and discovered that I was eligible to enrol onto the apprenticeship degree with Arcadis and Bolton University.

I feel that the degree apprenticeship has been really beneficial in that it has provided me a greater all-round knowledge of the various disciplines that are involved in civil engineering, in particular geotechnical design and structural design. This has helped me in my day-to-day role in the office, especially in my current role as a BIM manager on HS2, where I have to manage and maintain a multi-disciplinary federated model and run clash detection for the various discipline’s models included in the design.

I would recommend others to do an Apprenticeship based on the reasons I have mentioned previously added in with the fact that as well as gaining a degree, it enables you to apply for IEng accreditation with the ICE, which on its own can take several years, is probably easier and quicker to complete in conjunction with the apprenticeship degree.

I would however advise people to strongly research what is involved in an apprenticeship degree, speak to other apprentices about their experiences and check what structure the company/university has in place before enrolling, as it is a big commitment especially for people with additional responsibilities outside of their work life.