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“Being a reservist has given me a new found confidence in myself”

Lance Corporal Kate Bellerby, aged 40, serves with the Army Reserve’s 170 Engineer Group, and works full-time as a Pre-Construction Manager.

2018 is the Year of Engineering, a year-long campaign designed to tackle the engineering skills gap and widen the pool of young people who join the profession. The programme aims to celebrate the world and wonder of engineering and encourage future talent to consider engineering as a profession.

Kate joined 170 Engineer Group in 2014 as she wanted to gain broader experience of engineering projects. It also really appealed to her to be able to work overseas on military engineering projects.

Working predominately on construction projects for the education sector in her civilian life, Kate believes she has developed a variety of transferable skills through her part-time military role which have helped her to grow personally.

She explained: “Being a reservist has given me a new found confidence in myself. The Army Reserve has improved my self-discipline within my civilian job, and in return I offer a spectrum of commercially and environmentally focused design knowledge to the military design team that I am a part of.

“In my civilian job I typically work on projects which last for between one and two years. By contrast, the Army Reserves allows me to work on shorter projects including some that have to fit in to a two week Annual Training Exercise. This condensed way of working has sharpened my focus for delivery.”

Lance Corporal Kate Bellerby on a fieldcraft exercise – image by Capt SJ Metcalfe

Speaking about why she would encourage others to join the engineering profession, Kate continued: “I worked in architecture for the first 10 years of my career, but I had always been more interested in the construction stage of the project so I made the switch to a building contractor just under five years ago. The challenges vary and no two days are the same.

“The aspects of my current engineering role I particularly enjoy are stakeholder engagement, running a team and balancing the aspirations of the building users with the stringent funding and technical requirements.

“Engineering is a fantastic profession which enables you to be involved in a variety of projects at home or aboard, depending on your skills and experience. I’d definitely recommend it.”

Speaking about her role in the Army Reserve, Kate said: “I am a Junior Team Leader within 508 Specialist Team Royal Engineers (STRE), which is one of the teams within 62 Works Group that forms part of the wider 170 Engineer Group.

“508 STRE is a team of around 25 specialist infrastructure engineers assigned to work on a wide range of military engineering projects that provide engineering, design, consultancy, programme and project management, and facilities management to the British Military and other government agencies. Working in the Reserves means I can use my civilian expertise whilst gaining experience in new areas.”

As well as building on her engineering knowledge in the Army Reserve Kate has also had the opportunity to participate in a number of adventurous training activities such as hill walking, kayaking and sub-aqua diving. She has also achieved a mountain bike leader qualification too.

She concluded: “If you have an interest in engineering I’d certainly encourage you to find out more. There are tangible career benefits to being a reservist and you’ll have fun in the process!”