Stephanie Fenty

When Stephanie Fenty was in her final year at school she decided on her career path after taking part in a maths based challenge. She was selected to represent Turriff Academy as part of the “STEM in the Pipeline” competition, looking at the energy industry and how oil is taken out of the ground.

Stephanie said, “It was one day a week in S6 and I really enjoyed it. I hadn’t come across engineering before, and as my favourite subjects were Maths, Physics and IT, I began to think about a career in this area. I went to a NESCol open evening and chatted to the Shell Engineering Scheme lecturers. the subjects were interesting so I applied and was accepted onto the course.”

The Shell Engineering Scheme is a fastrack engineering course that comprises of 3 qualifications in 2 years: Performing Engineering Operations; the HNC in Mechanical Engineering and the HNC in Electrical Engineering. This is a sponsored course and is taught 5 days a week.

Stephanie completed the course during the pandemic.
She said, “ I wasn’t fully in College until halfway through my second year. This was really my first in depth look at engineering and I loved it. The lecturers were so helpful and at the end of the course my CV was sent off to SLB who were looking for apprentices. We were also given interview experience at College which was great.

“I was offered a SVQ Level 3 Mechanical Engineering apprenticeship with SLB and this is where I am now. I am a Mechanical Technician Trainee and am currently on rotation getting experience across the different workshops. Every day is different and I enjoy working within the different teams.

“It’s a great industry to work in – there’s loads of pathways and opportunities. Engineering is about problem solving and teamwork and seeing how things work. It includes maths, physics and IT so I made the right decision.”