Congratulations to Meral Irkan on recently completing her Engineering Apprenticeship End Point Assessment (EPA). “Completing the EPA has given me a sense of pride and accomplishment. The knowledge that experienced engineers have concluded that I have reached professional standards is a great confidence boost.” Meral tells us.
Asked about her interest in engineering Meral comments: “I always enjoyed numerical subjects at school, especially maths and science; I studied for my BSc in agricultural engineering and worked in a scientific laboratory. After having my children, I had to take a career break; when my children were old enough, I wanted to return to work, and developed an interest in the growing potential of Automation and Robotics.”
Meral began her apprenticeship with MGTS in 2019 whilst working as a General Machine Operator at Pepsico. Overall, she found her time at MGTS to be an enjoyable learning experience despite being one of the many apprentices impacted by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Meral comments: “Being a disciplined student I had little difficulty in maintaining self-discipline in completing my tasks during this time and the tutors went out of their way to make themselves readily available.”
Meral now enjoys the daily challenges and the variety of tasks she is asked to find solutions for as a fully qualified multi-skilled maintenance engineer with Pepsico.
For anyone interested in an engineering apprenticeship with MGTS the range of Pathways can be viewed here.