National Apprenticeship Week 2025: Westinghouse apprentices

I choose to pursue a career within Westinghouse due to the prestige associated with the high levels of training given within the company. I find the nuclear industry generally attractive due to the growth within that has been seen in recent years with projects like SMR (Small Modular Reactors) and the extension of reactor lives receiving government attention. Westinghouse as a whole has great retention of apprentices with a third of all employees on the Springfields site being previous apprentices. Unlike many companies, apprentices are given opportunities to progress within to the extent that the current managing director and most of his team are previous apprentices.

I have gained both hands on and technical skills from my apprenticeship. Skills like milling and turning have enabled me to think technically and see how a component can be produced to a high standard from stock material. I have developed my abillity to solve mechanical problems at work. This is something that will be of great value to me throughout my career and my life, enabling me to tackle difficult tasks at home too. It has also acted as a stepping stone for me to learn the expectations of a workplace whilst still gaining knowledge from my day at college.

Post my apprenticeship it is my goal to pursue a degree and a higher position with the company. Westinghouse is an amazing organisation to work for and provide great benefits and incentives to employees such as flexible hours and a good pension. I have no doubt about remaining in the nuclear industry for the foreseeable future. With great opportunities worldwide nuclear is a great option that should be considered.

My name is Harrison and I am currently in the second year of my apprenticeship at Westinghouse Springfields and The role of my apprenticeship is ‘electrical engineering’. I chose an apprenticeship in the nuclear industry, as after some research I discovered that the future of nuclear fuel looks extremely positive with countries all over the world looking more and more into switching over to cleaner renewable energy such as what we make her at Westinghouse.

I have gained numerous skills so far in my time as an apprentice such as maintaining all different kinds of machinery and electrical circuits that we have on site along with how to install them and I have learnt all about inspection and testing of electrical equipment/circuits. Additionally, I have gained knowledge about the industry and work experience that a lot of people my age do not have. This is why I am a strong advocate of apprenticeships as they are definitely the way forward in this line of work.

I chose to begin an apprenticeship in the nuclear industry with Westinghouse because I know that nuclear energy is on a steady increase, not only does it produce large scale energy, but it is also clean and reliable, which is brilliant in keeping carbon emissions down. It is interesting to find out about the way that the pellets are made at the Springfield site, as well as learning new skills in my job role such as manual filing, CNC and manual turning/milling, and many more.

I chose Westinghouse due to its extremely high level of attention to the safety of its employees, it is comforting to work somewhere that heavily enforces health and safety regulations as well as other government legislation. Choosing to do an apprenticeship was the best choice I have ever made, you get hands on experience with tools and procedures that you will be following in the future, it builds good practice as well as patience.

My goals post apprenticeship is to work my way up the ladder within Westinghouse. I Would like to challenge myself and see how high I can go. It is inspiring to know that the current Managing Director of the Springfields site began his career as an apprentice just like me, it shows that anything is possible if you are determined to work hard and keep your head down.

Why did I choose an apprenticeship? –

I chose to pursue an apprenticeship after finishing my time in college, as I wanted to be able to gain experience in the workplace whilst I completed my degree. Especially as an engineer, I have always felt that the hands-on experience of an apprenticeship suits the style of work more than a graduate scheme, because most of the time purely understanding the theory behind how a machine operates is not enough to allow you to solve problems and perform improvements in a working plant.

What skills have I gained from the apprenticeship? –

I feel I have developed myself massively through the course of my apprenticeship so far. Along with gaining a greater understanding of technical concepts and the operations of the plant, I have found that being in the workplace has greatly increased my ability to be organised and plan out my work. Most of all, I have found that over the 5 years I have developed a strong sense of drive and determination for all parts of my work, which I feel would not have been nurtured in a classroom environment.

What are my goals after finishing my apprenticeship? –

After finishing my apprenticeship I am firstly aiming to secure a role within the site’s Control Engineering Group, a placement which I enjoyed very much. Following this, I aspire to complete a master’s degree in a relevant subject, doing this as a part time course alongside my new role as an engineer. Finally, I will continue to seek out the necessary training while in my role to continue taking on new responsibilities and gaining competencies to become a more proficient engineer.

Hi, my name is Jude, and I am currently on the Electrical and Instrumentation Engineer Apprenticeship. The apprenticeship I am currently on is with the employer Westinghouse at the Springfields fuels site.

As I was going through my years of high school, I never got the chance to take engineering as a subject and it was always something that I had a major intertest in. When it came to my final year of high school, I decided that the engineering sector was for me. I then went to Blackpool Sixth Form college and did a Cambridge technical level 3 Triple Engineering course; this helped me gain a further insight to what type of apprenticeship I wanted to partake in. I chose Sector electrical, and this was because that’s where my primary focus lied. For me the Nuclear industry was a no brainer for where I would of liked to have my apprenticeship within, this is because I personally feel Nuclear energy is the future as unlike other energy sources it doesn’t rely on any external factors (Such as sun for solar energy.) , and without nuclear fuel being produced in turn nuclear energy wouldn’t be possible and this is why I felt Westinghouse was the place for me as they are known worldwide as a great company.

So far, I have only been on this apprenticeship around 6 months, and I have learnt more about real life skills than I ever have throughout school and college which says a lot. I have learnt how real-life things work and how they operate and can be fixed, I have learnt how to work within a team environment and express my views fairly. My communication and self-motivation skills have most definitely improved, as well as my independence to work on things safely.