Frederick Perks: A day in the life of a Civil Engineering Apprentice

We caught up with Frederick Perks , who sheds light on what he gets up to on an average day as a level 3 Civil Engineering Apprentice in our Birmingham team.

After waking up early, I get myself ready for the day and head to the train station. Once I arrive in the Birmingham office, I pull all the software up that I am going to need during the day and make myself a hot drink.

At the moment, I’m working on several industrial units which are either being built from scratch or have mezzanines being installed, so there’s a fair amount to juggle! So before getting stuck into the day’s project work, I catch up with my manager, Matthew Hancox, to find out if there’s any new work and make sure I understand the timeline for current projects. I also check any coursework I might have been assigned from Solihull College and University Centre to make sure I can fit this in over the week, alongside my project work.

Once I’m up to speed with all the latest development, I start working on a building model using Revit which is a 3D model-based process that provides tools to efficiently plan, design and construct buildings. Throughout the morning, I edit the construction drawings that I receive from an engineer in the form of a mark-up. I really enjoy this process as it’s fascinating to see how buildings are constructed, what makes them able to stand and how they keep their structural integrity.

The morning has flown by and it’s time for a team lunch! The whole structures department leave the office to grab some lunch together and we catch up and talk about the projects we are currently working on.

Once I’m back from lunch, I check my emails to see which meetings I have coming up throughout the day, as well as any site visits that may be coming up later in the week. I always enjoy going on site visits as it helps me better understand the size and complexity of the buildings we help create. It’s a lot better than just looking at them on a computer screen!

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, I work closely with the other engineers in the team, making sure that the construction drawings have been produced correctly and, once they are complete, I then issue the prepared packs to the client or to the site team.

Once that’s done, it’s time for me to head home!