Chris Walker - Advanced Apprentice, Overhead Lines
I'm an overhead lines apprentice. I'm just coming to the end of my three year apprenticeship. Working on the overhead lines involves maintaining the towers and the electricity lines that distribute the electricity around the country.
This week at Eakring I'm doing a tower erection course, this involves dismantling and re-erecting pylons. The best bits about my job is the weather when it's nice like this obviously, spending time down here with the other apprentices, doing lots of activities and working with my team in Leeds as well - a small gang, somewhere different doing something different every day.
The business helps and supports us to do our job by offering various training courses, qualifications, you get a lot of support from the staff both here and on site, all help and advice, everything's catered for - you don't need or want for anything
you know when you're doing a good job as you receive a lot of feedback from the training centre that comes in the form of a report, you have a mentor on site who provides feedback and also liaises with the training centre to tell them how you're doing.
I see my career path developing well over the next few years - there's a lot of qualifications offered to you that you're encouraged to do and I also see this as more of a career now than just a job especially with a company like National Grid.
If I had a friend who was thinking of applying for National Grid. I'd highly recommend it. I'd suggest that they got onto it rather quick, it is high demand and there's a lot of interest in it.