GCU celebrates outstanding graduate apprentice as part of This Is Engineering Day

GCU are celebrating our hard working engineering students as part of “This Is Engineering” day on the 4th of November: a campaign launched by the Royal Academy of Engineering to help raise awareness and inspire future generations of engineers.

Engineering (Design and Manufacture) Graduate Apprentice student Heather Thom has been recognised for her excellent work with the Merck Group - a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials.

Whilst balancing her studies, Heather is part of the Process Engineering team at Merck which involves carrying out CAPEX projects to benefit pharmaceutical facilities. She also represents her department at a number of site meetings including the health & safety team, quality reviews (MRB) and the site communications team (SWAT).

Despite the challenge of balancing her work with her studies, Heather says that the Merck Group has been very supportive. She said: “Balancing the work/study life can be a challenge and requires a lot of self-discipline in order to keep on top of everything.

By the same token, Merck is very supportive and takes a huge interest in my studies, while being conscious of maintaining a healthy workload.”

Now in her third year, Heather is hoping to use the knowledge that she has learned from her course and applying it to her work with the Merck Group. She said: “As I continue to work towards my Honours degree, I want to progress on my responsibilities and building on my current skills.

I hope to bring back and share with Merck the theory knowledge that I have gained from my time studying at GCU.”

Find out more about This Is Engineering day

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media