A RENFREW teenager is paving the way for her peers by taking the first steps towards a successful career in engineering.

Sophie McGoldrick, 19, has been able to put her skills into practice this year after successfully gaining a place in global engineering company Mott MacDonald’s fiercely competitive Modern Apprenticeship programme.

The former Renfrew High pupil said the skills, knowledge and personal experience she had received during her Foundation Apprenticeship in Civil Engineering at West College Scotland gave her the confidence to apply.

She told The Gazette: “My placement within the second year allowed me to meet people who were engineers and get a bit of experience actually working at what I would be doing in my apprenticeship.

“I was able to gain practical experience working on maritime projects, learning how to use CAD (computer-aided design) so I basically had all the skills to do my job by the time I started.”

Sophie has now completed the first year of her Modern Apprenticeship working entirely from home due to the pandemic and she is also working towards her HNC Engineering one day a week at West College Scotland.

She said: “I was really happy to get into the programme as it was during the middle of the pandemic, so it obviously wasn’t a guarantee I would get into the programme. The apprenticeship is interesting and fast-paced, there’s a lot to learn.

“From a young age, I’ve always had an interesting in engineering and finding out how everything works. 

“I like the design aspect of it and seeing different solutions to common issues like flooding. The engineering that you don’t see because it is underground can be really intricate.”

Once she has finished her studies, Sophie plans to complete her apprenticeship degree and become a fully-qualified engineer.

She added: “I currently work in water engineering, which involves drainage and river engineering, so I’ll probably continue with that.”

Richard McGowan, associate at Mott McDonald, said Sophie’s commitment and work ethic helped to make her a standout candidate during the recruitment process. 

He added: “Sophie was selected essentially on the basis that she completely nailed the interview. I would have been absolutely gutted if she turned us down.”