Joshua has engineered a great career
Self-starter Joshua Owens has a bright career ahead after he took the unusual step of giving up work so that he could gain better qualifications. The 21-year-old has put himself through a raft of engineering courses at Redcar & Cleveland College in order to gain qualifications in both electrical and mechanical engineering.
He even left a full-time job last year because he was unable to attend college one day a week to obtain an HND in mechanical engineering, but his hard work and commitment has finally paid off.
His determination to better his skills caught the attention of Tees Components in Skelton, east Cleveland, which has offered him an Apprenticeship and agreed to support him in further studies.
Joshua, of Redcar, said: "I have been coming to Redcar & Cleveland college since I left school with the aim of gaining as many qualifications as I could in engineering.
"I did have a job, but wanted to better myself, so gave it up to do the HND course. I think one of the reasons I was offered the job at Tees Components was because I put myself through all of these courses and didn't wait for a company to do it for me."
The former Rye Hills School pupil added: "I'm really enjoying it. Part of my job is to build PLC (programmable logic controllers) cabinets for ships and once I am fully trained up I will be building them and then travelling overseas to install and service them, so it's a great opportunity. Putting in the work has definitely been worth it."
Sharon Lane, General Manager of Tees Components, said Josh's positive attitude made him stand out.
"The fact that Josh had shown such initiative in putting himself through all of these qualifications really impressed us," said Sharon.
"He's a self-starter and his CV is excellent because he has applied himself so well.
"When we interviewed Josh, he came across as genuine and hard working and, crucially, he had done both electrical and mechanical engineering. We are finding more and more that we need people with both skill sets. Josh has a great career ahead of him."
Sharon said she would urge other young people to show initiative.
"When we are looking to interview people for Apprenticeships, we will always give an interview to someone who has had a paper round because we feel that if they can get up at 6am to deliver papers, they have a good attitude," added Sharon.
"These are the kind of self-starters we are looking for, so Josh was perfect."
Brian Lewis, an Engineering Tutor at Redcar & Cleveland College, said he was delighted that things had worked out well for Josh.
"Josh is proof that if you work hard and gain the right qualifications, there are great jobs and careers out there," said Brian.
"He had a full-time job and could have sat back and done nothing more, but he chose to go on and better himself and that resulted in this great job offer. I'm really proud of him."