Growing up like I did, I never imagined I'd be where I am today

ENGINEER WHO GREW UP ON HULL COUNCIL ESTATE FEARED ACCENT HELD HIM BACK

- By SOFIE JACKSON

AN engineer from Hull who grew up on a council estate has been chosen as the voice of a BBC Radio 4 fundraising appeal for the charity upReach.

Nuh Cooper left school with just one GCSE but through determination and support has risen to become a Graduate Engineer at FTSE100 company Spirax Group while simultaneously studying for a PhD in Responsible AI Strategy at the University of York.

"Growing up like I did, I never imagined I'd be where I am today," he said. "Without organisations like upReach, people from backgrounds like mine face countless invisible barriers to success, even after they've earned their degrees."

His remarkable career journey began in challenging circumstances. Raised by a single parent with limited financial resources, he slept on a bed donated by a church.

After leaving school, he began selling boilers on the local estate before securing night shift work on a portable cabin factory production line. Mr Cooper's life drastically changed course during a chance encounter, when he met a university student from a similar background who gave him the confidence to return to education.