Royal Navy Engineer celebrates ‘Tomorrow’s Engineers Week’

Engineering Technician (ET) Devon Smith, 21 from Portsmouth, has never looked back following his decision to join the Royal Navy as a Weapon Engineer.

Devon joined the Navy on May 27 this year, as an ET in the Weapons Engineering branch. He joined the Navy as he couldn't see himself doing anything else. He said “I chose the Weapon Engineering branch as I have always had an interest in finding out how things work, seeing why things are broken and how I can fix them, and to be able to do that on a warship seemed like the perfect job for me.”

Devon is currently in week 5 of his 30 week course, learning about the basics of Electronics and how to use such theories as Ohm's law, having previously covered topics such as health and safety onboard ship and how to use ships Maintenance Management systems to complete jobs onboard.

Having been born and raised in Portsmouth he went on to say “I have always been surrounded by everything Navy, lots of friends and family have served or are serving right now; this is probably what gave me the interest to join up, hearing constantly about how the Navy can change your life for the better and the opportunities it can provide.”

 “Another reason for me wanting to join was knowing that I can gain excellent engineering qualifications from working on the best equipment, whilst getting paid to do so. It's also peace of mind knowing that it didn't matter that I had no such experience on electrical equipment previously as they train you from beginners level if you have no previous qualifications. If I had the chance to speak to somebody who was considering joining the Navy's engineering branch I would tell them that it would be the best decision they could make.  Who wouldn't want to gain free qualifications whilst getting paid to travel around the world?”

The photograph, courtesy of Keith Woodland, Crown Copyright, shows Devon on his course, learning about Ohms Law as part of his maths module.