Ross Brawn makes pit-stop at Culham

Ross Brawn was the guest of honour at UKAEA's annual apprentice prize-giving event at Culham this Tuesday. And his words had extra meaning for the budding engineers, as Brawn started his career as a UKAEA apprentice in the 1970s.

Brawn has enjoyed a stellar career in motorsport, masterminding Michael Schumacher's world championships at Benetton and Ferrari, and is currently leading the Brawn GP team in their successful debut season in Formula One which has seen six victories to date. Before all that however, Ross cut his teeth as a trainee engineer at UKAEA's Harwell site and his apprenticeship stood him in good stead for his future career.

Ross Brawn said: "Working at the pinnacle of motorsport in Formula One is challenging but hugely rewarding. Motorsport is a highly competitive environment where practical experience can really make a difference to your career prospects. I firmly believe that developing your practical experience is the key to getting the best possible grounding in engineering and motorsport and I was fortunate to have achieved that with UKAEA, where my apprenticeship taught me many valuable skills."

"I'm looking forward to speaking to the young engineers at Culham and will hopefully be able to provide some valuable advice for their future careers. I'm sure the visit will bring back a few memories of my years as an apprentice at UKAEA."

Fourteen apprentice engineers are now being trained by UKAEA at Culham Science Centre. The current apprentice scheme was introduced in 2005 to give young people from the local area a kick-start into an engineering career, as well as to meet a requirement for skilled technicians at Culham—home to the UK's national fusion research program, and to the world's largest fusion experiment JET.