Huge congratulations to Year 13 student Sapphira who has been awarded a Mechanical Engineering Degree Apprenticeship with MBDA to include work placements with the Military. After a rigorous application process, Sapphira is delighted to be pursuing her ambitions for a career in Aerospace Engineering, which has been a long held dream of hers and she follows in the path of recent SHS leavers who are pursuing engineering apprenticeships with Airbus, Dyson and Mott MacDonald, amongst others.
Sapphira is studying Physics, Maths and Computer Science at A-level and has taken advantage of every opportunity that has come her way in the Sixth Form at Shrewsbury High. She completed the GDST Space Technology Diploma, available only to GDST Sixth Formers, and went on to attain her NASA EPDC badges and win the Globe Mission Earth Award for her research into a water searching lunar rover.
She credits this and her participation in the Engineering Education Scheme (now Industrial Cadets) in Year 12 in supporting her application for the degree apprenticeship. “I got so much out of the Engineering Education Scheme at school. We worked in teams and our team worked with Invertek Drives Ltd. to design and construct a solar powered hydroponics demonstrator. We were awarded the Project of the Year Award 2023 and my involvement in this, along with the GDST Space Tech Diploma, allowed me to demonstrate real world experience in engineering when I was applying for my degree apprenticeship. I’m really lucky not only that we have these opportunities here but that teachers like Mr Petford in Computer Science and Mr Pyle in Physics encourage us to get involved and support us through our A levels and beyond.”
There is also a an inspiring link between Sapphira and former SHS Student Dr Alice Bunn OBE, formerly Director of the UK Space Agency and now CEO of the Institution for Mechanical Engineers. Her picture hangs in the corridors of SHS and Sapphira contacted her during Year 12 and completed two of IMechE’s virtual Mechanical Engineering Work Experience programmes.
Sapphira’s success is mirrored across our year 13s with students accepting offers for courses as diverse as Biomedical Science, Medicine, Modern and Medieval Languages, Geography, Natural Sciences, History, Finance and Accounting, Computer Science, Veterinary, Psychology and Real Estate.
Congratulations Sapphira, please come back and share your experience with our pupils next year!
