Teenager Charlotte Hill is taking on the male-dominated world of engineering - and winning!

Charlotte, 19, has shunned more traditional female occupations for a career in mechanical and electronic engineering with some success. She has just been named as Bradford College engineering apprentice of the year.

Charlotte was one of six apprentices taken on each year by West Bowling firm Switchgear and Instrumentation Ltd (S & I).

She said: "I started out at the company doing work experience when I was at school, and really enjoyed it.

"I was always interested in maths, and there is plenty of maths in the work we have to do here.

"I was keen to get into engineering because I was never really that bothered about doing anything else.

"I have always been interested in design and always enjoyed hands-on work. I enjoy getting my hands dirty.

"It is an honour to be nominated for the award."

The lack of engineering apprenticeships nationwide is a perennial topic of discussion. But S & I, formed in Pudsey in 1959, continues to put its faith in the young people of Bradford.

Manufacturing engineering manager Bob Willan, said: "Charlotte is a model apprentice. She is very committed, hard-working and enthusiastic and is prepared to try anything.

"She is only the third female apprentice we have had in the last 17 years, and rates as one of the best apprentice I have known in the 28 years I have been here."

Like all trainees at the firm, Charlotte will receive a thorough grounding in mechanical and electronic engineering which, with hard work and application, will lead to a HNC (Higher National Certificate) in both subjects.

At the end of the course, she is keen to take up a position as a development

engineer in the company's cutting edge design studio.

With more than 300 staff at its 35,000 sq ft production unit at Ripley Road, Bowling, S & I is one of the leading engineering companies in the region.

Parent company Powell Electrical Systems Inc, based in Houston, Texas, bought the firm for £10 million this summer. In layman's terms, S & I produces switchgear and motor centres which control the electrics of industrial plants worldwide, including oil refineries, drilling platforms and generators.

The company, which posted a £25 million turnover last year, is installing switchgear equipment at a Bahrain oil refinery and completing a second order

on an island off Russia's eastern coast.

Charlotte, of Cleckheaton, will receive a certificate and a cash prize at a presentation to be held at S & I on Friday.

After completing her apprenticeship, she hopes to follow in the footsteps of her dad Adrian, who has enjoyed a successful career at S & I since he joined the company aged 15.

Bradford College engineering tutor Geral-dine Jude has no doubt she will succeed.

"From the first day she was with us, Charlotte stood out from the rest.

"She is the only female on the mechanical and electronic engineering course this year and had been determined, focused and dedicated from the beginning.

"She certainly deserves this award."