A former mechanic is living his dream of a career in engineering a decade after leaving school without the qualifications required to go to university. Paul Price — a 27-year-old from Rugby — has joined the design team of Coventry-based Penso after studying part-time at Coventry University College (CUC) and completing a foundation year
in engineering.
He says: “After leaving school at 16, I trained to be a mechanic and worked my way up to workshop manager, but I felt that I had reached a ceiling and wanted more of a career than a job. I thought about engineering, but I didn’t have the qualifications for a degree course and needed to do a foundation year first. With my full-time job as a mechanic, I couldn’t study during working hours, but CUC enabled me to fit my studies around my work and home life, which made it manageable. They also gave me the confidence and belief that I could do it.”
Towards the end of his foundation year, Paul speculatively gave Penso his CV, and he was offered an administrative role that gave him an insight into the industry. Upon gaining his qualification, he was moved over to the design team. “Two years after enrolling at CUC, I am effectively working as a graduate design engineer with an internationally renowned company and studying for a degree. It’s hard to believe how far I have come in such a short space of time.
My ambition is to become a senior designer with the company and to take my studies to a master’s degree, so that I can achieve my full potential.”