Cindy flies high as an avionic technician

Cleaner Cindy Ann Flower is flying high after persuading her bosses to let her train as an avionic technician and work on aeroplanes and helicopters.

The 29-year-old mother swapped her mop for a spanner at aeronautical-engineering company Qinetiq in 2004. She is now on a Mature Apprenticeship program, training to become an avionic electrical technician, and is the only female apprentice in her year at Boscombe Down airfield.

“It’s a dream come true,” she said. “I thought my bosses would just think I was being cheeky when I asked them to take me on as an apprentice, but they have been really supportive and backed me every step of the way.”

She took up the offer of a cleaning job with a friend’s company after struggling to get work following the birth of her daughter. But it was not long before she started dreaming of a new career and quizzed apprentices on the site about what was involved in training.

“The more I found out the more interested I became,” she said.“My cleaning job also gave me the opportunity to look round the engineering departments on site. The more I saw the more I wanted to have a go myself. I think it must run in the family because my father worked as a technician at Boscombe Down. In fact, I was born and lived there until I was five – on a trailer site that was set up for employees. When I look back,it never occurred to me that I would end up in the same place. It has been amazing!”

She continued: “It has been hard work – I have to study late and start early to ensure that I have still got time for my daughter and family– but it has all been worth it. I have also been pleasantly surprised at how I have been accepted. Where people have maybe been a bit dubious, I have worked hard to prove myself.

“Now I am doing the job I love and I would not change it for the world.”