“You get to see, experience and be part of lots of different things. That’s really what my apprenticeship is about. Getting to work with everyone, see what they all do”.
Blazye is in the first of three years of her apprenticeship programme at MIRA’s Nuneaton facility, the only non-degree apprentice in her cohort. “There isn’t a typical day to day,” she says.
“I’ve been here five months and I’ve seen the fabrication machine shops, how things are made from the very beginning - which is interesting because it gives you a better understanding when you see the bigger picture of how things have been made, how the part works within the whole”
“I’ve also spent times in road load data – testing out different parts of the vehicles when they’re working. Then we have other areas like batteries testing, crash – where we take these systems and destroy them or crash the car and see what happens: does the car respond as it’s supposed to, and it doesn’t, why hasn’t it? We can fix that and change that”.
It was at the point of moving from her GCSEs to A Levels at her Leicestershire high school that Blazye decided university wasn’t for her. “My learning style is seeing the practical. Getting hands on helps me understand more, rather than reading something in a book. An apprenticeship is blended learning – it’s a better learning style for me.
Both of Blazye’s parents did apprenticeships and have been supportive of her. But at her school she found there was a lot more information for universities than apprenticeships.
The classroom element of her apprenticeship is provided at a college in Leamington, part of WCG.
“The practical has helped me understand my college work more. MIRA is very supportive – if you have a spare hour, you can do your college work.
“Everyone here’s really, really friendly. They’re all very supportive of each other so it’s a nice environment to be working in as well.
Looking ahead, she says, “MIRA has so many facilities, really you have the choice to go anywhere you want in engineering. I’m keeping my options very open. I’d like to have a go at everything and really see what interests me the most”.
Blazye’s interest since childhood in cars and motorsport in particular has led her to her current role. “I used to really enjoy going looking at all the different shows - racing or people bringing their cars and putting them on show - having a look at the all the different modifications, different things people had designed or thought to improve something on the car, whether that be aerodynamics, speed or anything like that.
“That’s where my interest originally started – different things people were trying to do to kind of counteract the problems they might encounter”.
Growing up in the Blazye household, ““I’ve always been around the DIY aspects. We always serviced our own vehicles; if they broke we always fixed our own cars”. She had a part-time job since the age of 14, saving up to buy her own cars.
She is passionate about internal combustion vehicles, particularly 1990s Japanese cars which are very popular to customise. Her current pride and joy is a Mazda MX5 Mark 1. But she adds: “Ultimately changing to electric is way forward, we can’t keep burning fossil fuels to the end of time. Growing up at my age at school it was the time that we realised that actually we do have an issue with climate change – for me it’s just kind of normal”.
“So it’s important to think of the ways where we can have the feel of an internal combustion engine but is a greener way of doing it. Whether that be electrical vehicles, hydrogen, synthetic fuels perhaps in the future, I’m not sure – but we will find a way to create green things and stump up greener energy. So that was what was motivating to come to MIRA and find out about.
“EVs are being developed so much now that we can see a point where they will be as good as internal combustion engine vehicles or even better. So there will be a point where we can definitely match that, or be better than what we previously had.
But in the meantime, “EVs do definitely need to get cheaper for people. It’s inevitably got to happen sooner rather than later if we’re going to get all these electric cars on the road.
“You can go and pick up an internal combustion engine [car] for £2000. You can’t pick up an EV for that that’s of the same condition. That is something we are trying to bring down for people – to make them more available to people who might not be able to afford a more expensive car”.
Senior Technical Manager (Vehicle Engineering) at Horiba MIRA James Halstead says: “Our Mission Statement is to develop the best team and deliver the best customer experience – this sits alongside our vision statement of improving lives by making journeys safer, cleaner and smarter.”
“Amber is a prime example of taking someone with the passion for Automotive Engineering and enabling them to experience a wide range of engineering disciplines in order to find the best possible fit for them within the business, and support them whilst they grow and develop the skills needed.
“This approach enables us to deliver not only exceptional customer satisfaction but also to develop and innovate new technologies with engineers who are highly motivated and passionate about their subject matter”.
For more information please contact Josh Neicho at [email protected] and 07415877375
