Congratulations to three BEL Valves Design and Application Engineers who have been awarded a first class honours degree at Northumbria University.
Jonathan Fyfe, Chris Convery and Lewis Davidson have received a remarkable first class honours in Mechanical Engineering. Working full time in design and application engineer roles, the employees balanced full-time work whilst studying part-time at university.
A fundamental part of the BEL Valves strategy is to invest in employees who wish to complete further education to help them in their role and shape the future of the business.
Paul Humphreys, General Manager, said: “Further education is a great way for our employees to develop new skills allowing them to progress within the business. By utilising what they have learnt at university, we know that they will become experts in their roles and in turn, they will be great assets to the business.”
The three engineers joined BEL Valves via the British Engines Apprenticeship+ scheme. On top of their normal apprenticeship they completed a Level 3 NVQ in Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering (CNC Machining), Level 3 BTEC in Manufacturing Engineering and a Level 4 HNC in General Engineering.
Jonathan Fyfe, Design and Applications Engineer, said: “The support from everyone at BEL Valves has been great. We were able to take short notice holidays around exam periods to revise together and colleagues have helped with questions surrounding the modules. The flexibility from work made things a lot easier for revision.”
The degree has already paid off in their roles. Lewis Davidson, Design and Applications Engineer, said: “Since studying computation fluid dynamics (CFD) at university, we now have a better understanding which is helping us to interpret CFD analysis reports on our valves to meet client requirements.”
Improving on their technical and project management skills, Chris Convery, Design and Applications Engineer, said: The skills we learnt at university were quite broad. Studying analytical modules has helped with the technical side of my role. University has also helped me improve my project management skills which I have already put into practice.”
The engineers plan to become incorporated engineers (IEng) and aim to be chartered (CEng) in the future. For now, they are taking a well-deserved break from studying. We wish them all the best in the future.
Find out more on how to become an engineer.
