Meet Aidan Whetham

I love travelling and being involved in new technologies. The heating systems we’re working on are being improved all the time. It’s exciting to work on projects that are helping shape the future of heating and energy. You get to see exciting engineering ideas being used in real life. It’s not just about building stuff, it’s about doing something that really matters for people and the planet.

Communication is a massive part of my job. I need to explain things clearly to different people, from engineers to clients (the people who own the buildings we work on). Problem-solving is also really important. If something doesn’t fit or work on site, I have to figure out why and what to do about it. I also need to be independent and use my initiative. No one spoon-feeds you – you have to be keen to learn, ask questions and speak up when you don’t understand something.

I work in a team of around seven people, but we link up with teams across the UK. I also work closely with a project manager and engineers on site. There are people with loads of experience, and they’re great to learn from. You pick up so much just by asking questions and working alongside them.

Everyone is learning about these new technologies at the same time, so it feels like we’re all figuring things out together. You’re never on your own, and there’s always someone to help if you’re stuck.

One of the coolest things we use is a heat interface unit, or HIU. It goes inside people’s homes and connects to our district heating network. It replaces a normal boiler and delivers instant heating and hot water from a central energy centre.

There’s no gas needed, it’s compact, doesn’t give off any carbon dioxide emissions and makes heating cleaner and more affordable. It shows how engineering ideas can make everyday life easier and greener.

I’m really into sport. I play football, go running and support Manchester City. I also like travelling and going on short city breaks around Europe. I visit my parents in Dubai a few times a year, especially at Christmas, to escape the cold! I lived there as a teenager, so it still feels like home.

At school, I enjoyed practical, hands-on subjects like design technology. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at the time, but I liked problem-solving and making things. Outside school, I was always messing about with tools, building dens and tinkering with things. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that curiosity really helped me later on.

In my first year as an apprentice, I won ‘Building Services Engineering Apprentice of the Year’ and ‘National Apprentice of the Year’ at the BESA Awards. My dad flew out from Dubai to be there. He’d won Apprentice of the Year when he was younger, so it was a special full circle moment for both of us.

In a house that’s connected to a district heating network, you don’t need a boiler at all. The hot water comes straight from underground pipes connected to a central energy centre. The heating still works with radiators, so the inside of the house looks the same, but the way it's powered is completely different.

Once I finish my construction management degree apprenticeship, I hope to move into a more senior engineering role and keep working on exciting low carbon projects. There’s loads still to learn, and the technology keeps evolving.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to do straight away. Explore your options – reach out, talk to people, go to careers events and ask questions. Get stuck in and stay curious. If you get the chance to do an apprenticeship, go for it. You earn money, gain real experience and learn skills that will set you up for the future.