Alice Ford

"My personality types are coordinator, trainer and manager. All these types require me to be organised which in my job role I must be - between balancing coursework and learning new things everyday. I need to be adaptable and work well with others when something goes wrong or we need to attend a new job site. "

"Day to day I learn about how to maintain the geometry of the track and also how to renew it. I am able to see the changes my team makes and how this makes a positive impact on our part of the infrastructure. The thing I enjoy most about my job is seeing the physical changes and getting new data from track recording machines to show how much we achieved. The teams I work with are also really helpful and any questions they are willing to help me. Currently my second year apprentice wage is approximately £12,000 a year this jumps to £30,000 a year when I complete my apprenticeship and become a level 2 technician. "

"At school my best subject was design and technology, this was because I love to learn by doing something physically. My dad was an engineer for the Royal Navy so I knew I wanted to go down the engineering route. When I saw that network rail were looking for apprentices I knew I needed to apply. Once into the application process the more I learnt about the scheme the more I knew how badly I wanted the job. "

"Although my job is a track engineer, I'm still super girly at heart. When I have some free time I love to bake all kinds of things and also cook dinners for my family. I enjoy taking my dog out into the Lake District and exploring new walks at the weekend. "

"Every day on the railway is different. One day I could be out on track all day on a renewals job or another I could be out with the technical team looking at track geometry and how we can fix this. I will also use any spare time in the day to keep up with my assignments and reply to any emails. "

"I achieved 6 GCSEs A - C then completed a NVQ level 2 engineering course at my local college. "