TWO pupils from a city school are believed to have become the first Roma children to secure coveted places on an engineering apprentice scheme at Rolls-Royce, which will run alongside their school lessons.
Miroslav Gabor and Natalie Dankova, who are both 14, have beaten off competition from dozens of other teenagers to win places on the Young Apprenticeship in Engineering initiative which will see them spending one day a week at Rolls-Royce during term-time.
The pupils will spend the rest of their week continuing their GCSE studies at The Bemrose School and hope that the scheme will lead to places on a full-time Rolls-Royce apprenticeship programme, post-16.
Students from Bemrose School, Miroslav Gabor and Natalie Dankova, both 14 won places on the Young Apprenticeship in Engineering initiative.
The pair underwent a vigorous assessment programme before earning their places on the course, including an interview with school governor Martin Jones about the expectation of Rolls-Royce as an employer.
Miroslav, who would one day like to be a rocket engineer, said: “I applied as I thought it was a wonderful opportunity – everyone has heard of Rolls-Royce.
READ MORE: Pupils exceed teachers’ expectations at The Bemrose School.
“I am taking triple science at GCSE and know that I will have to work hard to keep up with my studies, but I believe this was too good an opportunity to miss.”
Natalie, who came to the UK from the Czech Republic 10 years ago, added: “I’m really excited to start and I’m pleased to have been selected as it shows that girls can achieve the same thing as boys.”
READ MORE: Students celebrate GCSE successes at The Bemrose School.
Eight children from Bemrose School applied for the apprenticeship positions at Rolls-Royce and four made it through to the assessment day. Natalie and Miroslav begin their apprenticeships, along with 18 others, in September.
The Bemrose School has a higher-than-average number of Roma students from Eastern Europe and the school works hard to engage and raise achievement in this particular cohort.
The Bemrose School, Derby, logo.
Nationally, Roma pupils have had the poorest outcomes of any pupil group in terms of attainment, attendance and exclusion at the end of both key stage 2 and key stage 4.
Executive head teacher Neil Wilkinson said: “We are incredibly proud of Natalie and Miroslav who are mature beyond their years and a brilliant example to our other pupils of what can be achieved by focus, determination and hard work.
“I have no doubt that they will put everything into the opportunity Rolls-Royce has given them and I look forward to watching them grow and thrive over the next two years.”
Ellie Long, Early Careers Business Partner at Rolls-Royce said: “The impact of Covid-19 on students and young people has been profound, and particularly affected the opportunities of those disadvantaged backgrounds and under-represented groups.
“As we actively work to increase the diversity of our teams and take deliberate actions to increase the representation of different groups in our workforce, our Young Apprenticeship scheme will help us build deeper relationships with these students and will help us attract the diverse engineering talent we need for the future.”
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