Inspire Scholar - Claire Sedgwick

Claire Sedgwick

Sponsored by ConstructionSkills and Costain on the Inspire Scholarship.

What degree are you studying?
MEng Civil Engineering with Business Management at Sheffield University.

Why are you attracted to a career in construction?
When I was at school I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I was wandering around school and saw a poster promoting a year in Industry places, so I applied for that and went to work at Nottingham East Midlands Airport. Working in their Engineering Department sparked off the interest for me, I've always enjoyed Maths and Designing, so this seemed to combine my strengths.

Why did you apply to be an inspire scholar?
When I was at Nottingham East Midlands Airport I did some work with someone from ConstructionSkills and they told me about the programme and suggested I apply. It was really easy, I just filled in the online form and then someone called me after a couple of months and set everything up for me! Any financial help getting through Uni is great, but the work experience is almost more valuable, it's about having that experience under your belt when you graduate.

What valuable experiences did you gain from your work placement with your sponsoring company?
Well as I said it's really helped my understanding of the things I've learnt at University and it gets you into the business. No one in my family have been involved in Construction, in fact I didn't know anyone in the industry before I started, so it's really opened my eyes to what's out there and who the industry operates.

During my summer placement I got to work in lots of different areas of the business, experiencing both the Consulting and the Contracting side, it helped me to understand all that is involved in a massive project. I even spent some time with the Public Liaison department, when they were at the planning stage of a project that will mean a number of families potentially loosing their homes to a development site - it was scary, but it was interesting to be involved first hand with the legal and social issues surrounding such major construction projects.

What would your ideal job be?
I don't know yet, I haven't quite decided. I like the idea of working with water, here we just take it for granted that water comes out of the tap, but this isn't the case everywhere, so I'd like to get involved in overseas projects in developing countries, there are so many options and it's so open right now. The subjects we cover in an Engineering degree such as applied Mathematics and problem solving appeal to many different sorts of companies, so I could really apply the skills I've gained anywhere.