皇家华人

Professional construction apprentice Tiarna Powell always knew she wanted a career that involved working both in the office and out on site.

Naturally good at maths, she initially considered accounting but didn鈥檛 enjoy the work experience while at school so instead turned her attention to construction.

Tiarna, who took A levels in Sports, Business and Law at sixth form college to keep her options open, is now聽 studying for an HND with Derby College Group while working at G F Tomlinson in Derby.

She joined the construction firm鈥檚 apprentice scheme in 2019 and completed her HNC course at the Roundhouse with a distinction, having achieved seven distinctions and one merit in the course鈥檚 eight units.

Tiarna, now 21, is going to Nottingham Trent University next year to do a three-year degree apprenticeship in quantity surveying.

She is currently working towards the End Point Assessment (EPA) for the higher apprenticeship while taking top up units from the level 5 course at Derby College.

She said: 鈥淕oing to the Roundhouse and learning in this way is so useful. What we are taught at college we put into practice at work, and what we learn in the workplace, we do in college.

鈥淥ur tutors are good 鈥� they鈥檒l help us but they won鈥檛 do it for us. We鈥檙e expected to be independent.

鈥淚 also like the learning resources at college. We use Revit, the same specialist building design software we use in the office at work.鈥�

Since joining Tomlinson鈥檚, Tiarna has spent time with the estimating team in the office but more recently has worked with the QS team on site at building projects across Derbyshire.

She added: 鈥淭here are still a lot more men than women in professional construction but girls shouldn鈥檛 be put off.

“Many employers in the sector increasingly want to encourage diversity and there are great opportunities for women. Being a quantity surveyor is such an interesting career 鈥� there鈥檚 so much more to it than number crunching.鈥�