Sadie Kennedy
Sadie Kennedy is an Engineering Apprentice at Hyde Details (Fabrications & Welding). Prior to starting her apprenticeship Sadie was working at Aldi, but this was just a stop gap because she wanted to do a more practical, hands-on job. She enrolled onto a short MIG welding course and that is when her passion for welding began.
Sadie is a finalist for the SME Apprentice of the Year at the Enginuity Skills Awards - the most prestigious awards event in the UK for manufacturing and engineering. She said: “It is fantastic that my employer and my skills development coach at the Growth Company have recognised my potential. To win would be the cherry on the cake for me after completing my apprenticeship.”
Sadie, hard at work.
Sadie is glad she chose to do an apprenticeship: “I feel empowered, trusted to do a job and I feel valued by my supervisor. I have loved the opportunity of doing a qualification whilst being paid to be in work. I enjoy the rapport with my colleagues.”
Pamela Dodd - Group HR Manager at the Hyde group of companies
HR Manager at the wider Hyde Group, Pamela Dodd, is full of praise for Sadie. She said: “Since starting her apprenticeship, Sadie has improved in terms of developing her welding skills and can now weld even the most complex jobs. She will take herself outside her comfort zone and challenge herself. The biggest thing for me was when we entered the Business University Challenge run by the Northwest Aerospace Alliance in 2019. Sadie was nervous about public speaking, but delivered an excellent presentation, getting great feedback from the chair of the NWAA. It was obvious from that event that Sadie had excellent leadership skills and as a company, we came 4th in that event.
From the moment I met Sadie, I thought what a breath of fresh air, and I was excited to find such fresh talent that we could work with as a group. Sadie brings with her positivity, resilience, determination and high standards. She’s an excellent welder and commands respect from her peers who have 20 years more experience than her.”
Sadie feels that more needs to be done to encourage girls into engineering. “When you look in the catalogue when ordering workwear, it is all men. It’s stereotyping”, said Sadie. When you look back to the 2nd World War and the men went out to serve their country, the women stepped up and welded. There were women welders! I would tell women just to go for it.”
Pamela added: “Sadie is the first female apprentice in the Hyde group of companies. Since then we’ve taken on two more female apprentices, so she’s been a pioneer. I believe there is still a stereotype around engineering being a man’s job and that more needs to be done to encourage girls to consider a career in engineering. I think that it starts with the schools though promoting engineering as a career for anyone of any race, gender or academic ability. I am currently trying to get into a local all-girls school to offer work experience and to promote engineering as a career. I also think that more can be done to influence parents as well.”
Sadie is planning to progress to a higher level of study and wants to complete management training. Her long-term goal is to be a manager in the engineering sector.
Pamela would recommend recruiting an apprentice, adding: “If a business was considering recruiting an apprentice and asked my advice, I would say GO FOR IT! There is so much real talent out there. Don’t just think of an apprentice as being a school leaver. You may get a college leaver after A levels or you may get someone in their mid-20s looking for a career change as we did with Sadie.”
Article originally appeared on The Growth Company website on 31 January 2020 and is reproduced with their kind permission. Original can be seen here.