When Amy Scone, 38, signed up for one of Bylor’s lifting apprenticeships she didn’t even know if she liked heights.

Now she can regularly be seen 40 metres above ground, getting in the 1,000 hours on the tower cranes she needs to get her ‘blue card’ qualification.

Amy, who lives locally, was previously cleaning the HPC Park and Ride sites. Looking for something “a little bit different” she got chatting to members of the Bylor lifting team during a recruitment drive at the Somerset Energy Innovation Centre.

Now, six months into her 18-month apprenticeship, Amy has already progressed to her role as Relief Driver and does a couple of climbs a day up tower cranes on site. The next step is to operate her own!

“I’m happy because I’ve got skills that I’d never have got before. I can stand out from the crowd and I’m proud to say what I do. My husband works as Logistics Supervisor for Bylor. I say to the kids, ‘Daddy does the paperwork for the power station but Mummy’s building it!”

Having a career in nuclear is really exciting because of the variety of work, challenges and innovation that I get to witness and be involved with – making a real difference.

“I joined the nuclear industry in 2015 when I started as a Higher Engineering Apprentice at Springfields. Alongside my apprenticeship, I completed an HNC and progressed on to achieve a First Class Bachelor’s Degree in Mechatronics Engineering. I have recently been recognised at the 2020 UK Nuclear Skills Awards event where I won Engineering Apprentice of the Year and the overall UK Nuclear Apprenticeship of the Year. Gaining both practical and academic experience through my apprenticeship set me up for my future career.

“My current role is within the site’s Product Design Group where I work in the Supplier Routes & Process Materials team. We are responsible for defining the technical requirements for materials and components used in the manufacture of AGR fuel and ensuring the quality of products delivered by 18 suppliers across the UK and Europe. The team is responsible for assessing changes to the design and manufacturing routes of these products.”

Cassie leads the Technical Workstream of the UK Alpha Resilience and Capability programme (ARC) which provides funding for projects, secondments and bursaries to build alpha related skills and capabilities to provide benefits across the UK nuclear industry.

“Following a degree in astrophysics at the University of St Andrews I joined the nuclear industry as part of NNL’s nuclear physics team at Sellafield. From there my career has evolved through a wide range of technical and management experiences, from projects modelling cosmic muons at Glasgow University to a secondment tracking environmental isotopes at Thorp, from managing a team of nuclear chemists to leading NNL’s internal R&D programme.

“One of my most formative opportunities was a placement supporting NNL’s Executive and Board which offered a fascinating view into NNL’s unique challenges as both a national lab and commercial entity. It also gave me an appreciation of the broader challenges facing our industry and the huge impact that can be made through collaboration. This range of roles and perspectives, paired with an enthusiasm for the incredible technical capability of the UK industry, has given me a particular interest in the delivery of strategic science projects.

“My current role in the Alpha Resistance and Capability Programme is a great example. We support the development of alpha skills crucial to the development of the UK’s nuclear industry. I lead ARC’s Technical Workstream which offers funding to support technical projects secondments and travel bursaries which help build alpha-related skills to benefit the whole industry.”

If you’d like to learn more visit https://www.nnl.co.uk/innovation-science-and-technology/collaborations/alpha-resilience-and-capability.