BLOG: My Queen's apprenticeship experience – Heather Mitchell
"I would recommend an apprenticeship to anyone who has an interest and maybe hasn't had the opportunity before or is looking for a change."
A special blog for NI Apprenticeship Week by Heather Mitchell, Apprentice Lab Technician, School of Biological Sciences.
I have always loved science and had a keen interest in studying it further, but I started working at a young age and had caring responsibilities, so I didn't have much availability to study. I was working in healthcare and looking for a change when I saw the opportunity to work at Queen's and study at the same time. I wouldn't have to sacrifice work for study or education for work, and it was a way into a field I have always enjoyed.
Now in the second year of my apprenticeship and having completed my exams at Belfast Met, my experience has grown, as has my confidence.
This year, I developed skills in many different areas. The best thing about an apprenticeship is that it gives you a chance to try your hand at lots of different things. I gained experience in research labs, an undergraduate lab and the main store.
My typical tasks include things such as assisting my team in preparing experiments for classes – setting out equipment and supplies, calibration and maintenance of equipment such as microscopes, pH meters, fume hoods, incubators and pipettes, anemometer checks on safety cabinets and fume hoods, flushes of eyewash stations and ensuring labs are well stocked with supplies. There are also a few stand-alone moments, like performing a tutorial video on the correct use of a pH meter, which is played at the beginning of classes or using a MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser depolarisation/ionisation time of flight) mass spectrometer to detect and identify cross-contamination in bacteria stocks.
Working in a lab is never boring; there are always new skills to learn, new goals to achieve, and interesting work to be done. I would recommend an apprenticeship to anyone who has an interest and maybe hasn't had the opportunity before or is looking for a change.
