A former cinema worker has secured a place as an apprentice engineer to work on a new footbridge to span Canary Wharf’s South Dock.
Adil Ahmed, 22, spends four days a week working at Arcadis, the engineering firm which won the contract for the new bridge, after getting an apprenticeship through Tower Hamlets Council's employment programme.
"It's a big change from the cinema," Adil admits. "The training is all new to me, but I've been given lots of help."
The former pupil from St Paul's Way Secondary in Bow Common spends his fifth day at the University of East London studying for a degree in civil engineering.
"They were helpful about preparing me for the interview," he said. "It was more like a conversation talking about why I was interested in engineering."
Adil, who lives in Poplar, had always wanted to be an engineer and studied maths, double maths and physics at A Level.
But he thought he might have to put his career ambitions behind him when he had to cut short his time at university.
He has the task of using artificial intelligence and virtual reality tools to help simulate the new South Dock Bridge, a major project for the council which is using it for its WorkPath programme to help create 1,000 apprenticeships in the East End by 2020.
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