Celebrating 100 years of apprenticeships with Kathryn Towell

Training future talent through apprenticeships is a huge part of Marshall Centre's history. With more than 100 years’ experience and expertise, the centre has many unique apprentice journeys to share.

Kathryn Towell,

Marshall Centre writes:

We caught up with Engineering Apprentice, Kathryn Towell, who started at Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group in 2017.

Kathryn has always been curious about how things are designed since she was young. Her fascination of taking things apart and ‘attempting’ to put it back together again, really pointed her in the direction of a STEM career. After completing her A-levels, she applied for Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group’s Engineering degree apprenticeship scheme. She was successful and started in September 2017, where she was later given the option to gain a qualification in aerospace, which means she will complete her degree in 2023.

Our apprentices always have some funny workshop stories:

“I’m a Drill Instructor in the Air Cadets, so I can shout quite loudly. I remember when it was really loud in the workshop, one of the trainers was calling someone but it was so noisy the apprentice being called couldn’t hear. So, I called their name, and the whole workshop went quiet. Needless to say, they were shocked and yet impressed with my voice – it was so funny.”

Another fun outing was when the 2017 cohort went to the lake district for team building. The trip included kayaking, orienteering, a murder mystery, and a fun scavenger hunt around the town. This meant that Kathryn had to go into local pubs looking for a cork, but one pub owner was so confused he sold her a coke as he thought she had a northern accent!

She’s also been involved with LaunchPad, which is where schools visit Marshall Aerospace and Defence and they complete STEM based activities. It ranges from students aged 8 to 18 year visiting and completing activities like building rockets, egg parachutes and programming a robot to put out a ‘fire’ on a 3D printed C130 (Hercules aircraft) with a birthday candle attached.

“I really enjoy working with school children by helping them see their potential and realising the power and influence of science.”

Kathryn’s not sure what direction her career will take yet but has plenty of time to decide, so there’s no rush!

A huge thank you to Kathryn for sharing her experience and we wish you the best of luck with the rest of your apprenticeship journey!



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