Tenielle Walmsley, a former student at Ferryhill School (formerly FBEC) has won the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) EngTech of the Year Award.
Tenielle, formerly a student at Ferryhill School, who later went to study Physics at Durham University is now a Senior Test Engineer with Bolton based defence company MBDA.
She was announced as the winner of this year’s award, in recognition of her achievements and contribution to the engineering sector, industry and the wider economy, at a ceremony in London shortly before Christmas.
On finding out she had won, Tenielle enthused: “I had gotten myself really excited over potentially being shortlisted for the award. However, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I just had my fingers crossed. So to find out I was the winner and was being awarded EngTech of the Year 2022, I was gobsmacked.”
To win the award, Tenielle demonstrated her outstanding commitment to her professional development, and showed how she makes a positive difference to her workplace.
She also showed how she makes a significant contribution to encouraging young people into an engineering career.
Judges read how Tenielle had run STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering Maths) after-school clubs, titled Raising Aspirations, which covered job aspirations, physics revision and problem solving activities at Ferryhill School over ten weeks in early 2022.
Tenielle had also hosted engineering and problem solving sessions to Year 9 students at the school’s Aspire Day in June 2022, which was organised with the purpose of giving students some inspiration on career paths.
On her nomination, Tenielle’s sponsor for the award described her outreach work with students at the school as having been “an inspiration to the young people”.
Following her award win, Tenielle acknowledged the help and support she had received to achieve it.
“Thankfully my employer allows me to support these outreach events,” she said. “But I would not have won this award without the help of my sister Paige, an engineer at the local Stanley Black & Decker site in Spennymoor, who jointly delivered the after school classes.
“I would also like to thank Ferryhill School who welcomed me back and trusted me to run these sessions with their students. There is also a special thank you to my sponsor for this award, Mrs Wilson and Mr Elliot, who are doing a great job raising the aspirations of all students at their school.”
However, Tenielle is not resting on her laurels. In 2023 and beyond she is looking to continue her support of the school, as well as supporting local careers fairs and other STEM outreach events.
Continuing to focus on her future as an engineer, she is also aiming for Chartered Engineer status in the next few years.
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
