Our first apprentice in our Medical Device Engineer (MDE) department has been presented with two awards at Buckingham Palace.
Fiona Baxter, 18, from Dronfield, was invited to Buckingham Palace last week to receive her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award and Queen Scout Award from Prince Phillip himself.
Fiona is EMAS’ first MDE apprentice and joined the service in March.
She said: “Buckingham Palace was pretty impressive and it was an honour to meet the Duke of Edinburgh."
To achieve her Gold Duke of Edinburgh award, Fiona had to survive a four day hike with three nights of camping and a five day residential course. She also had to complete 12 months of volunteering - which she did with the scouts, 12 months of a skill where she chose to work on her textiles and drawing, and 12 months of a physical exercise, so she chose kayaking.
To secure the Queen Scout Award she had to complete 18 nights away from home looking after the Scouts, and 18 months volunteering with the organisation.
Fiona completed a project in sixth form about designing medical devices where she created a zip that people with limited dexterity could use.
Therefore, when she saw the advert for an apprentice in MDE, she decided to apply for it.
She said: “I didn’t want the university debt so I chose to do an apprenticeship, and I thought it would be interesting to fix medical devices and service them.
“I would like to stay working in the MDE department in the future, so I hope one day there will be a full-time job available.”