Mark Johnston, head of structures in the design office at Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge in the UK, began work with the company as a 16-year-old and tells Working Week that he never looked back.
How did you get into the aviation business?
I was a local lad. Marshall was one of the biggest companies in the area and I happened to be good at school at what was then called "technical drawing". Like every kid I had an interest in aviation and I guess it has grown from there. I came for an interview and got a job as a technician apprentice.
What did your training involve?
I did a four-year apprenticeship that involved basic training. I spent some time going around the company and two years learning the trade of a draughtsman. I've been head of structures for the past 10 months. Before that I was head of systems for five years, but during that time I was also senior designer for the Airbus Military A400M flight testbed programme [modifying a Lockheed Martin C-130 to carry the new Europrop TP400 engine for the military transporter].
What does your current role entail?
I'm responsible for around 120 structural design engineers. I ensure the workforce has all the necessary skills to carry out the varied work that we undertake. At the moment probably about 75% of my time is dedicated to the C-130. [Marshall has a £1.5 billion ($3 billion) contract to support the UK Royal Air Force's C-130J/K transports for the rest of their service lives.] Other main areas are supporting the RAF's Lockheed TriStar fleet and looking at what other work we can obtain in the future.
What are the best and worst aspects of your job?
The best is meeting a new challenge every day. You have a plan and pretty much things go according to it, but you always get something that surprises you. That's good - that's the way you learn. Worst aspect? Meetings. The demand for meetings has grown and it's something where we need to find a way of working smarter. We've tried video conferencing, Web-X and teleconferencing and they can work very well. We probably need to use them more.
What qualities would someone need to do your job?
You would need to be flexible and adaptable. You need to be able to take the rough with the smooth in terms of the variety of work and the people you deal with.
Does the company still offer apprenticeships?
Absolutely. We have a very good apprentice scheme as well as a graduate training scheme that is accredited with the Royal Aeronautical Society. We're putting many graduates through becoming a chartered engineer and that is a route also open to apprentices, who have the opportunity to go on and get a degree. We take about 20 apprentices a year.
Does Marshall suffer from the long-running problem in the UK of school-leavers and graduates not wanting to "get their hands dirty" in the manufacturing sector?
Just the opposite. I have an awful lot of applications to look through and the majority are graduates. My biggest difficulty is getting experienced people. We like our graduates to have had one year of industrial placement with us. They get a sponsorship when they have done that and would come back to us after completion of their degree. We have a very successful retention rate with those graduates. Primarily they are engineering graduates, but we also take people with degrees in subjects such as mathematics.
Source: Flight International
