The apprenticeship marks a mid-career shift for Wesman, who has worked for the company for 14 years as a bus driver. She joined soon after college, having been rejected from the armed forces for being one inch shorter than the minimum height.
In fact Wesman’s first stint in the garage was a decade ago, when she was pregnant. The company has a policy of rotating expectant mothers out of public-facing roles, so she assisted the personal assistant of engineering director Mark Horide, helping with job cards, taking notes on fuel delivery and other minor tasks. The department appealed to her immediately, but the stresses and strains of having a young family meant that she got behind the wheel again when maternity leave ended.
The next step on her journey to the workshop was a functional skills course in English. Go-Ahead had introduced these across all of its employees, and it happened that Wesman was the first to complete the English module. Invited to meet MD Richard Stevens, he asked if she had any other career aspirations – and, remembering her time in the workshop, she said she would like to have a try at engineering. A conversation with Horide led to two weeks of successful work experience in July 2019. Brexit and COVID delayed her apprenticeship start to 2021.
Asked if she felt comfortable learning next to a group of teenagers – the college providing training is Bristol’s S&B Automotive Academy – she said nearly half of the class are older learners, with some women too, from varied backgrounds.
And being a woman in the workplace hasn’t been a problem, she reports, though owing to her height she sometimes needs to borrow a tool to reach a kingpin greasing point, for example. “I don’t feel that I stand out too much. I am a generic apprentice, still asking questions constantly. I’m not as independent as I’d like to be, but I’m not treated differently because I’m female.”
Wesman says that while the manual tasks pose no problem – her father was a builder, and she quickly learned to be handy with tools growing up – some of the more technical aspects of the course, such as reading electrical diagrams, are more challenging. Still, she is enjoying the work.
“One of the buses I was working on today had an accident, and the wiring loom was cut through when they were trying to put the body back together. It had a few complex faults; the marker lights had gone off on one side, and so had the windscreen wipers. It turns out that the problem was that a few of the fuses had blown. So it was a case of reading the board, finding the right fuse, checking the amperage and swapping it out.”
She continues: “Another task today was a road test on a bus with a manual gearbox which the bus drivers say is too jerky. We think that the fact it is leaking coolant is related to that, and the dash warning lights.”
Speaking about her experiences, she concludes: “It’s a mixed bag. And that’s the great thing about engineering: not every day is the same, and it always feels new. I want to stay in the company. I’ve been here 15 years, and I like where it is heading. I like the benefits. It is family-orientated. I have a lot of trust in the managers and directors, and a great rapport. I feel at home and love having a job here.”