I left school at 16, after finishing my GCSEs, because I wanted to join the workforce so that I could start earning a salary and have tangible consequences and rewards for my work. I joined FM Conway in May 2024 as an assistant specialist surfacing coordinator before starting my apprenticeship in the same role in November that year. The opportunity to start work before the apprenticeship was really beneficial to me. I was able to meet the team and settle in before I started doing my college work alongside it and working towards the level 3 business administration qualification.
I had always struggled at school with the structure of classroom lessons and constantly working towards exams. My dad was really supportive of my decision to leave education as he had worked at FM Conway for a while before starting his own business, and he helped me find the best path for me. He really respects the business and the opportunities on offer, so suggested that I look into FM Conway. Since joining, I have completely agreed with him, I feel at home at FM Conway, the surfacing team are like my family, and I enjoy being able to speak to anyone around the office and onsite. I have had great opportunities to learn and felt incredibly supported to develop my skills, in this apprenticeship I am never stationary, nothing is tedious, I am able to branch out and find new opportunities with my team.
Another reason I was keen to start an apprenticeship was the ability to earn a salary, meet and communicate with friendly, like-minded people, and network to build towards a successful career. My brain is more stimulated by the work I do here because of the real-world applications of the administrative work, programming, and organisation that I complete – people rely on me, and that makes me thrive. The responsibility of my job is why I thrive; I organise where the surfacing teams are going and what they are doing on site and run the system where our on-site workers input daily record sheets and the completion photos which we use to price up jobs.
There are so many different components and teams which come together to build towards one project in the construction industry, and I love seeing these very different people deliver amazing end results. I am constantly able to multi-task and work on multiple different projects, which is exciting. Being active is an important thing for me and, at FM Conway, I am able to go out on site when I want to mix up my day, I go to learn more about the surfacing department and communicate with the people on site. The variety of people at FM Conway is also a great reason to work here, it is a very social industry and the people are friendly, down-to-earth, and easy to get on with.
The team have been incredibly welcoming to me, and I have felt really comfortable with them from the start. Construction is a traditionally male dominated industry, and although I am one of only five women in my team, I have never felt different or left out in my time here, everyone is treated equally and we just have fun together. In this business, diversity within the industry is very important and I have females to aspire to such as one of the managers of the quantity surveying team (who we work closely with) who is a woman. It is really empowering to see female representation in senior roles. The team really push me to grow and succeed, they are always happy for me to take a day out to go visit one of our sites to learn more about the processes out there, or to try something new at work. We all have different backgrounds and opinions, but everyone is respectful of each other, and we compile our ideas together to come up with the best possible results in all of our work.
It's important to me to have a career rather than just a job, and the people around me are quick to ask about the progression of my role and support me to learn and grow. We often talk about what I want from my career, for my future and what I want to do next, which gives me the opportunity to decide what the answers to those questions are and surround myself with the right people to help me reach my goals.
For National Inclusion Week, we sat down with Matthew Chapman, Infrastructure Manager in our IT Department, to hear about his journey with neurodiversity, his experiences as a parent, and how inclusion has shaped both his leadership style and personal growth.
Pride and Progress - FM Conway's National Inclusion Week 2025.
This Careers in Construction Month, hear from Hannah Purnell, one of the Talent Managers in our Learning and Development Team, as she talks about her role, the opportunities available at FM Conway, and why apprenticeships are a great first step into the industry.