Alumni profile: Dan Bowie, Civil Engineer at Taylor Woodrow

For students who are interested in a career in Civil engineering, alumnus Dan Bowie offers a wealth of information and advice on scholarship and apprenticeship opportunities, careers and getting into the industry. After graduating with a first-class honours degree in Civil Engineering, Dan works for Taylor Woodrow and is currently working on HS2.

I attended Richmond School from Year 7 to 11 and enjoyed it so much I stayed to complete my A-levels at the Sixth Form College. I graduated in 2013, with A-Levels in Maths, Physics & Business Studies (ABB). Achieving an A in Maths was in no small part thanks to the late, great Mr Gedye who taught some of my A-level classes. I also proudly hold a B in AS German thanks to Mr Potter’s hard work keeping me focused in lessons and offering me an outlet on the hockey pitches!

I left Richmond, having already achieved a place to study MEng Civil Engineering at The University of Sheffield to undertake a ‘gap staff’ year long programme based at Regents International School in Thailand. As well as working, I made the most of the opportunity travelling around the surrounding countries including Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Before taking up my place at University, I applied and successfully received the ICE QUEST Scholarship. This fantastic programme now offers up to £2,000/year of your degree in addition to paid summer placements with the best Tier 1 contractors and consultants based around the UK. I cannot recommend this programme enough – you can find out more HERE

I received the scholarship in partnership with VINCI Construction UK (VCUK), the UK based arm of the giant French-based international construction and concessions company. Through this I received £2,500 / year (it has since dropped to £2,000) and paid placements every summer working on Crossrail in London.

In 2018 I graduated with a First-Class Honours Degree in Civil Engineering, having also completed one year of my degree at The University of Alberta in Canada, as part of a study abroad programme.

Following the scholarship with VCUK, I joined their Civil Engineering arm ‘Taylor Woodrow’ full-time in November 2018 working on the M6 J2-4 Smart Motorway Upgrade based in Birmingham. In February 2020, following the completion of the motorway project, I began working on our HS2 project – again based in Birmingham. This has been an incredibly rewarding project so far, having never been involved in pre-construction before I was thrown into the deep end working in the bridges team. We are only a small team planning the construction of highly complex structures over and under motorways, watercourses and existing railway infrastructure.

Since graduation, I’ve been building my knowledge and experience in order to achieve the title of Chartered Engineer (CEng). This is an internationally recognised title awarded to engineers by the world’s oldest professional engineering body – the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE). As part of this I will shortly be undertaking a 12-month design-based secondment to assist me in achieving some of the attributes associated with the chartered engineer status. I hope to achieve CEng in 2023!

Please feel free to contact me on Daniel.Bowie@taylorwoodrow.com if you’re looking for advice on getting into the industry or the scholarship!

https://www.roundsquare.org/gap-opportunities/ – link to ‘gap staff’ opportunities