DESIGN FOR LIFE

HUNDREDS of thousands of teenagers are getting their GCSE results today and facing up to their future. Whether heading off to college, finding an apprenticeship or a job with training, it can be scary.

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Mia Hickson, 19, from Penwortham, Lancs, knows how that feels. After her GCSEs, she set about realising her dream to become an engineer. And now, having done T-levels, she is one year in to a degree apprenticeship with Leyland Trucks as a design engineer.

What does your job involve on a day-to-day basis?

I am currently on a rotation in production support at the engineering office at Leyland Trucks, which involves working with other areas of the business including engineering unit areas, manufacturing engineering, quality, materials and purchasing. Production support is really in the name - it's there for any issues in production which are related to engineering. These can be either small issues that can be fixed that day or longer-term issues that will need other parts of the business to help support.

What do you love about it?

I love the process of seeing something new I've designed in CAD (computer aided design) come to life. I also enjoy designing products to fit a customer's specifications, taking on their requests and investigating how we can make it work for them.

What are the challenges?