This is Engineering: sports car specialist

This resource is an interview with Todd - a sports car specialist.

"At age 10, Todd from Coventry switched on the TV and started watching Top Gear. He thought supercars were super cool, read up more about them and became a bit of a car geek. Now, at 21, he looks after the body panels on Aston Martins, and makes sure they’re top quality, including on his dream car, the DBS Superleggera.

Nobody else in Todd’s family was interested in cars, so they didn’t understand why he liked them so much. For Todd, it was just a hobby, and he didn’t think it could become a job, so he focused on drama, art and music at school. Then he met someone from Aston Martin at a careers fair, and they invited him in for work experience. He loved it straight away. He spoke to graduates and apprentices in the business and that helped him decide what he wanted to do.

At the age of 16, he joined the apprentice scheme at Aston Martin and got to work in every area of production. He finished his apprenticeship with a BTEC Level Three in Manufacturing Engineering and an NVQ Level 3 in Engineering. One of the things he really liked about the engineering apprenticeship was the amount of responsibility he was given, which gave him opportunities to hold meetings with directors, take on new challenges such as leading large teams, and sometimes even drive the cars…!"

This resource forms part of the This is Engineering campaign.