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Your new career awaits

By Hinkley Point C media team | Posted November 11, 2019

Your new career awaits

Whether you want to work in a busy café or drive the world’s biggest lifting crane, there are plenty of opportunities to carve out your exciting new career through the training and development on offer at Hinkley Point C. Four local team members explain how they’re doing just that...

 

Towering above

When Amy Scone signed up for one of Bylor’s lifting apprenticeships she didn’t even know if she liked heights. Now she can regularly be seen 40 metres above ground level getting in the 1,000 hours on the tower cranes she needs to get her ‘blue card’ qualification.

Amy, who lives locally, was previously cleaning the Hinkley Point C Park and Ride sites. Looking for something “a little bit different” she got chatting to members of the Bylor Lifting team during a recruitment drive at the Somerset Energy Innovation Centre.

Now, six months into her 18-month apprenticeship, Amy has already progressed to her role as Relief Driver and does a couple of climbs a day up tower cranes on site. The next step is to operate her own!

She said: “I’m happy because I’ve got skills that I’d never have got before. I can stand out from the crowd and I’m proud to say what I do. My husband works as Logistics Supervisor for Bylor. I say to the kids, ‘Daddy does the paperwork for the power station but Mummy’s building it!’”

 

 

Supporting success

From picking orders to liaising with carriers, Finn Cavanagh enjoys everything about his job as General Storeman with Bylor.

It’s Finn’s first permanent role and he landed it after doing work experience in Bylor’s stores as part of EDF Energy’s supported traineeship programme.

Finn said: “My experience is in football refereeing, which I did during college for three years, before I got involved with the traineeship programme. On the programme, we practised important skills like teamwork, problem solving and using initiative. I’ve definitely used and developed all of these working in the stores.

“We were given lots of support with job applications and interviews while we were on the programme. I applied for work experience with Bylor, got it and the job came from there.

“I enjoy everything about it!  It’s great going out with the driver, supporting the deliveries to Bylor’s platforms. I also love learning about construction and it’s exciting to be part of building Hinkley Point C.”

Counting the opportunities

After 10 years as a bricklayer for a local firm, Sam Shaw, EDF Energy Commercial Apprentice, wanted to move into a managerial role. Nothing came of it until he spotted his current role on a job advertisement website and decided to go for it, even though he was worried he didn’t have the skills to be a quantity surveyor at that time.

“They’re often called the ‘guys who count the bricks’, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s basically contract management dealing with the monetary side of things. And I wasn’t sure I could do it.

“The idea of a degree was galaxies away from what I thought I’d do. Now I’m three years into my five-year degree apprenticeship. I recently passed my HNC in Construction and the Built Environment and am starting my BSc in Quantity Surveying and Commercial Management. It’s crazy!

“People used to talk about the opportunities here, the job security, pensions and how well you’re looked after and I never thought I’d have any of that. I’m still in the same industry but the job is completely different.

“It’s changed everything for me. I’m more motivated and that has filtered through to everyday life. I bought a house last year so in the evenings I work on that and I study.

“My wife Lucy works away during the week so then I’m single dad to six-year-old and 20-month-old sons and we have a third child on the way. I’m enjoying all the challenges and I’ve got a hunger to learn more.

“I’ve already told countless friends and family members to look at the wealth of jobs on offer here and Hinkley Point C has many more local opportunities for people.”

Your future is here

EDF Energy can offer you a bright future no matter what age you are:

Young HPC

If you’re aged between 16 and 21, Young HPC has the support, guidance and resources to help you on your way to your dream career. Find useful tools to help you with your CV, and interview techniques. Register to be first in line for skills experience days, where you will meet the companies helping to build the new power station.

Apprenticeships

Whether you’re looking for a business and professional future, or are more drawn to a technical, engineering or scientific role, discover our opportunities for early careers with our apprenticeships, graduate programmes and industrial placements.

Hinkley Point C Jobs Service

The construction and future operation of Hinkley Point C will create thousands of employment opportunities in a range of occupations and careers, from construction and civil engineering, to hospitality, security and support roles. Search for jobs and register your interest in upcoming recruitment events at the dedicated Hinkley Point C Jobs Service website.

Inspiring the next generation

With a long-term construction period and a 60-year operating life, many future Hinkley Point C team members are in today’s classrooms.

EDF Energy’s Inspire Education programme was launched in 2011 to increase young people’s interest in Science, Technology, English and Maths (STEM) subjects and encourage them to consider careers in these fields.

Since its launch, Inspire has:

  • Reached 150,000 students
  • Carried out more than 1,000 activities
  • Worked with 400 schools and colleges
  • Directly led to the creation of social value of between £1.395 million and £1.732 million*, through raising the aspirations of young people in Somerset and helping them into improved employment opportunities at Hinkley Point C and wider STEM sector
  • 42% of Hinkley Point C apprentices engaged in the Inspire Programme felt it had changed their career path*

 

*Inspire Five Year Report, Skyblue Research

 


 

Hinkley Point C Opportunities Roadshow

On Thursday 28 November there will be an Opportunities Roadshow held at Bridgwater and Taunton College. No matter what stage of your career you are at, this is a chance for you to learn more about the Hinkley Point C Project, get involved and find out about future opportunities.