In a UK rail first, the first Avanti West Coast-sponsored student with Arkwright Engineering Scholarships has completed his scholarship.

The first student to enrol and complete the two-year scholarship is Walsall’s Queens Grammar School student, 17-year-old Samraj Ojelay.

Since starting the scholarship, Samraj has spent a week in Wolverhampton at Alstom’s Midlands Train Care Centre.

He has been under the supervision of Andrew Skinner, an Avanti train fleet engineer who has extensive knowledge in train maintenance.

Andrew has been teaching Samraj about the roles and jobs that are involved in regularly maintaining Avanti’s train fleet.

Samraj has also met Avanti colleagues working in many different departments and from other sectors of the business at Avanti’s offices in London and Birmingham.

Thanks to his scholarship, Samraj is now considering a career in the rail industry.

Avanti West Coast began offering scholarships in partnership with Arkwright Engineering in 2022. Each year, four students are chosen through a stringent selection process. The scholarship lasts for two years, and students receive a week of work experience, a mentor to guide and instruct them on their placement, along with financial support towards their studies.

The scholarships aim to inspire students to consider an engineering profession within the rail industry.

“I’m really grateful to Avanti West Coast and Andrew for this incredible opportunity. I valued every second of my work experience and having a career in rail has now become something that I could see myself potentially doing in the future.

I had never really thought about a career in rail, but through my work with Avanti West Coast and the valuable insights from Andrew, I gained a real appreciation for the large scale of their operation. I hadn’t considered nor appreciated the level of detail and planning that actually goes into keeping trains running on a day-to-day basis.

Originally my career thinking was about getting into civil engineering, in particular the structural side of it; but now, thanks to my experiences with Avanti, I’m more into mechanical engineering and maybe even civil transportation.”

Samraj Ojelay, Scholar

“Samraj is a passionate young engineering prospect who has an extremely bright future ahead of him, and it great to hear that he is now considering a career in rail after his time with Avanti West Coast.

It is important for us to inspire future workforce generations and by mentoring a selection of Arkwright Scholarship students we are able to showcase the opportunities in rail available to those studying engineering.”

Andrew Skinner, Samraj’s Mentor