A Gloucestershire apprentice who left school last summer is already a keen advocate of the apprenticeship route to employment.

Since joining Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, degree apprentice Tash Tustin has hit the ground running as a trainee consultant.

Securing an apprenticeship with an international project management and engineering company with opportunities to work on major engineering projects including HS2, Tash is maximising every opportunity to develop her career after leaving The Cotswold School last summer.

Tash Tustin said: "When I was in year 13, I was applying for both apprenticeships and university. I knew that I wanted to become a business consultant, as business was my passion and I wanted to go into a fast-paced environment.

"For me, doing an apprenticeship was a no-brainer - it was the opportunity to get an education in the form of a degree and being able to work alongside that. I wanted to be able to put what I am learning into practice in my everyday job."

Alongside her core role of managing project finances to ensure projects adhere to budgets and margins, six months into her first year of apprenticeship, one of her proudest achievements has been her involvement with the Apprentice Challenge.

"The Apprentice Challenge was the first project that I ran as project manager and was responsible for. I had never project managed anything before, so I had to completely learn the role of a project manager from scratch.

"I am so proud that we were able to deliver without too many bumps in the road. The aim is to allow apprentices to run their own projects and gain experience in that area, which involves me delegating tasks among the team and tracking progress, to ensure that we meet our deadlines."

Inspiring the upcoming generation is something Tash cares deeply about, and she has already been invited back to her old school and others to attend careers fair and give careers talks.

She said: "I am an advocate for the recruitment of apprentices. For National Apprenticeship Week, I did an Instagram takeover to give further insight into a day in the life of a project management degree apprentice."

Tash found the apprenticeship at Atkins through the UCAS website.

She continued: "So far, I have been really enjoying my apprenticeship and I am glad I chose this option over university. I would say, if you are thinking about doing an apprenticeship, go for it! There are so many different apprenticeship routes out there."

For Tash, the highlight of being an apprentice so far has been to meet new people every day and expand her network.

Looking to the future beyond her apprenticeship, she said: "I would like to become a change consultant, as I enjoy engaging with stakeholders and assisting them to overcome challenges they may face. It involves a lot of psychology and engaging with different people, which I think I would enjoy."

Supporting the development of quality careers education programmes in Gloucestershire secondary schools and colleges is the core mission of the GFirst Careers Hub, hosted by GFirst LEP and funded by the Careers and Enterprise Company.

Duncan Willoughby, enterprise coordinator at the Careers Hub, said: "Tash is an excellent advocate of degree apprenticeships. When we met her at a local careers fair recently, she was busily engaged talking to other young people about her career experiences and explaining the choices she has made so far.

"Her determination to share her story and help influence others illustrates just how important meeting others who have chosen that route is in helping young people to make informed choices and progress into the world of work.

"Our local remit as a Careers Hub, working in conjunction with the Careers and Enterprise Company and a range of partner organisations working in employability and skills, is to ensure that young people in the county are aware of and have access to high quality careers education experiences to learn more about the world of work."