Lauren Cunningham is 24 years old and an Engineer working for leading design, engineering, environment & regulatory consultancy, Sweco.

At 16 years old with a raft of excellent GCSE results and A* success in the Design Engineer Construct! Learning programme, Lauren chose to left St Ambrose Barlow RC High School and begin a Level 3 Technical Apprenticeship with Mouchel, which was shortly afterwards acquired by WSP. At 18 years old, she achieved her first professional accreditation, EngTech with the Institution of Civil Engineers, was shortlisted for the ICE Jean Venables medal and named the ‘Made in Manchester’ Apprentice of the Year.

Lauren has since gone on to undertake a 5 year part-time BEng degree at Liverpool John Moore’s University in Civil and Structural Engineering and has recently graduated with a First Class Honours Degree. During the past 5 years she has worked on a range of projects, from local authority city centre renewal schemes to large-scale multi-million pound infrastructure projects. Her year out on site on secondment to Balfour Beatty brought her design and construction expertise together and she has undertaken several Assistant Project Management roles, giving her real-world commercial experience.

Lauren is looking forward to achieving her Incorporated Engineer (IEng) status and becoming a well-rounded Chartered Civil with a view to working overseas.