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By Dina Karim dina@movepublishing.co.uk
Being considered a rising star by shipbuilder Cammell Laird is an achievement in itself, but bright engineer Sam Musgrave has also just been declared top in his field in the UK at the age of only 20.
Cammell Laird’s star
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large workshops housed in the college. MECNW boasts a stunning 6500m2 of purpose-built riverside premises next to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. It features state-ofthe-art workshops, classrooms, IT suites, offices and conference facilities, as well as its own operational dry dock. “My dad was a design engineer, and I wanted to be an engineer since I was a young age. Watching him become very successful motivated me, and I’ve always enjoyed the skills behind the job which he taught me from an early age,” he said. Having just completed his apprenticeship, he is now a fully qualified steel fabrication welder which consists of doing all the repair work on ships, and also the new builds such
wanted to work there. They took on quite a few lads, but quite a few dropped out, around three quarters have left the scheme. The reality of the apprenticeship, such as early hours and no school holidays, means some young people don’t want to do it really. For me it’s different though, the satisfaction of doing something and then seeing it in its finished state, then when someone’s marked it and measured it and all the measurements are accurate it shows you’ve achieved something. A lot of people don’t know what to do; I’ve always known what I’ve wanted to do. I think people should be allowed to experience what I have as some people might not know they like it, and we could lose some great people because they don’t have the opportunity.”
all going to get floated to one place. I got to work on the aircraft carrier which was pretty amazing. We were dropping these big beams in and I got to do one of them on my own, it was good to say I did that whole piece underneath the deck of the aircraft carrier, because it was massive. There are challenges every day now that I’m no longer supervised, because I’m fully qualified, I have to be very precise, like looking at the drawings and realising there’s a massive piece of metal that needs lifting by crane and has to be on the dot. It is a challenging job.” Sam has proved he is top in his field in the UK for his age group, coming second in the prestigious WorldSkills International championships. Over its 60 year history, WorldSkills International
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Sam Musgrave joined the Maritime and Engineering College North West (MECNW), three years ago after he was recruited from The Mosslands School, in Wallasey, via their student apprenticeship programme, where he spent three days at school and two afternoons at the college preparing to move into an apprenticeship. The college, open since 1998, is a centre of vocational excellence for the Maritime, Engineering, Manufacturing and related sectors. Based in Birkenhead, and next to the Cammell Laird shipyard, MECNW has excellent links with the sector and delivers successful apprenticeships, and other government-funded programmes. Liverpool continues to be a city with an excellent maritime knowledge and skills base, and with businesses actively being encouraged by the Government to get involved in apprenticeship schemes, specialist colleges remain important to the local economy. With the city looking to expand its maritime position in the UK through projects such as the Royal Seaforth Post-Panamax Container Terminal, it’s now more important than ever to encourage young people to enter the sector. Through MECNW, Sam progresses into a full engineering apprenticeship and is now working for Cammell Laird, having gained tradesman status as a result of successfully completing his Level 3 NVQ qualification. We meet at the college, where he talks me through how he got into the programme, taking part in the World Skills International championships last month and walks me through the
I would walk past the Cammell Laird yard on the days I would come to college, and knew I wanted to work there.
as the new aircraft carrier by making general components for it. “At the college we learned everything from hand-fitting techniques, to using machinery, and different types of welds, small fabrications and engineer operations. I would walk past the Cammell Laird yard on the days I would come to college, and knew I
Cammell Laird is one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding and last year it was announced that Laird had received a £44m order for the flight decks of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. “There are 400 yards all around the country with different bits built in each one, once finished they’re
represents the pinnacle of excellence in vocational training. Every two years hundreds of young skilled people gather together from around the world to compete before the public in the skills of their various trades and test themselves against demanding international standards. They represent the best of their peers