Hussain Zadran is an Aeronautical Engineering student at the University of Salford.
For PathFinders, we speak to Hussain about his inspiring story, overcoming his delayed start to education and working hard to forge a successful career in engineering. We spoke to him at Silverstone Circuit during the IMechE Formula Student championship, where he was helping the Salford Racing team build their custom racing car for the event.
“I never went to school, I couldn’t afford it. The people who had money, they could afford it. Sometimes we didn’t even have a house, no food, no light. Coming from a very, very poor background. I came to this country about Year 7ish. It was very difficult. But that motivated me to go out and study because I just knew that was the way out for me, to be able to go out and show the world. I needed to fight my war through speaking and be able to defend myself with speech.
I started studying hard every single day. I was studying, learning English. I passed my GCSE’s, messed up on science a little bit, but it was fine. It didn’t make a major impact.
I got into Kingston College. I started studying level three manufacturing engineering. It was an extended diploma, which was equivalent to three A levels, and I got the equivalent to three A*s. Every single day, seven days a week, I was studying more than 10 hours a day.
I was offered places for university. What I was offered to study at Loughborough for. For me it was a bit too far away. Salford was very convenient for me, and I’ve got family there as well.
My hope is that I stay doing this sort of thing [volunteering for Salford Racing] on the side looking for placements just to make sure I get my experience and knowledge built up. I believe anything is possible there. Things in life have taught me that if I can come from such a poor, war-torn country to the UK, now I’m studying engineering, then anything is possible.”
I want to finish my degree with a Master’s looking to possibly go and get my B license, which is the aircraft technician, and then my C license. To be B licensed is a couple of years and I think C is well over ten years. Then you can become a chartered engineer.
That’s just plan A. Plan B would be go into the Navy, go in as an officer, come out and then you can do anything you like. So that’s sort of the plan I go for. Engineering-wise, I believe I want to stay in the industry as a technician, working physically, possibly for about five, eight years.”
Watch the video above to hear the full exclusive interview.
The Morson STEM Foundation aims to support people from all backgrounds explore and pursue pathways into engineering-related careers. With the immense demand for STEM skills un the UK, Morson Group is investing in education and aspiration, working hard to change lives and ensure a sustainable future for the industry. Find out more about the Morson STEM Foundation here.
Boxing trainer Joe Gallagher is an instantly recognisable face in the corner of the ring. A veteran of some 60 amateur fights himself, the young prospect turned his attention to training in the early 1990s, and has since gone on to become incredibly successful, training the likes of the Smith Brothers, Anthony Crolla, Scott Quigg, Natasha Jonas and more to world title successes, many while benefitting from sponsorship from Morson along their journeys.
With Joe’s current stable of fighters now moving back from Bolton to where it all began for Joe, Phil Martin’s Champs Camp in Moss Side, Manchester, we caught up with Joe to reflect on his career journey. He talks openly to PathFinders about his parents’ influence on him, the years of struggling to balance his amateur training with his day job and the strain that it put on him, the golden years of his stable and much more.
What was your earliest memory of boxing?
I think like everyone’s when they were growing up then in that era was watching Muhammad Ali, with my dad. He was huge boxing fan. And Ali because he was so popular, world heavyweight champion and everything, as a child just sat there watching. Then all the other fighters like John Conteh from the UK at the time, he was world champion.
At the time I must have been around eight or nine. I was going mixed martial arts and karate. And then I got to around age ten I was, I was third grade, you know, the brown one more before you go into a black belt and which was in the playground. And someone mentioned that there’d been a boxing gym opening up but wasn’t sure for them. So I told my dad I’d go to the boxing gym.
So I went down and the person whose gym it was that was open was Jimmy Egan. So that’s more known now as Jimmy Egan’s Boxing Gym and wasn’t sure, but then it was known it was in short form and I went there and I stuck with it and I said, the rest is history.
Is it fair to say that your dad and Jimmy Egan were the two biggest influences and biggest role models in your life growing up?
And mum. Yeah, she no, she worked very hard and it wasn’t much money in the house. My dad was always working hard out on the roads and was holding down two or three jobs down at the time. I was the oldest of five and four sisters.
I did want to turn professional at one point, as every fighter does. But my dad was worried that there was no money in it. So, he said, you’re going to come out on the road to me and that’s it going to need to get a proper job. You’re only going to make money if you’re like Muhammad Ali, the equivalent of that generation. So those were the type of conversations or just for right, okay, then. And that was that’s why I didn’t turn professional, and I went into coaching then.
Watch the video above to hear the full exclusive interview.
Now retired and working to train the next generation of fighters, including his brother Will, Joe Gallagher-trained world champion boxer Anthony Crolla speaks openly to PathFinders about his incredible career, both in and out of the ring, and what his hopes are for the future. Click here to hear his story
“I was bullied for being smart when I was a kid and people took the mickey and I hid it. And I tried not to come across as clever. And if I had anything to tell 14-year-old me, I wish I could slap her in the face honestly, and go, stop it! Stop being shy. Don’t be ashamed of being smart because it’s your greatest asset.”
Freyja Ingham is Asset Care Team Manager at Morson Projects. Without much encouragement from her teachers to consider pursuing a career in STEM, Freyja spent much of her early teenage life working in a local café, unsure of what to do. PathFinders speaks to her about her journey into engineering:
Talk to us about your early life and career
I started work when I was 13 in a local café, and I sort of stayed put there and while I was doing my GCSE’s and my A-levels. I was working part time the whole time and I just, I didn’t really know what to do with my life.
I was waiting on tables, pot wash and then I moved up to working in the ice cream parlour. I got my own till and I got to till up at the end of the day. And I love tilling up because I like to know that my till was right. And then I did front of house, and I really loved talking to people.
I liked to be able to have a good chat with customers. And then I went on to wait on in like an actual restaurant side and I worked behind the bar there as well.
When did you consider the possibility of a career in STEM?
I did STEM at GCSE kind of age and you know we went to the Big Bang Fair in Manchester and it was it was really good fun.But I guess I never kind of considered it as a career path because my teachers never really pushed that and they were like, “oh go to uni”
There was six of us. And there was three girls and three boys. So it wasn’t particularly biased to one gender or anything. I’ve always enjoyed like my maths and my physics and mathematical kind of subjects. I like the challenge of it. I like the fact there’s a right and wrong answer as well. The teachers pushed university and not so much vocational. I love that vocational kind of, you’re doing your job, learning on the job type of thing.
So I was, I was carrying on waitressing and I wasn’t into that sort of full time. I had spinal surgery and I spent a year recovering from that. And it was while I was off kind of deciding what do I do with my life that I thought I should probably consider, maybe engineering because there was a lot of it locally on my doorstep. I live right between BAE Systems and Sellafield. So it kind of is there in your face.
Talk to us about your early steps in engineering
I applied for a few positions, and I was really lucky to get offered a job with Morson and a complete traineeship. I had no kind of background experience and they said that they’d train me up in the roles and take me around all the departments and see where I fit best and what I enjoyed the most.
I shadowed all the engineers I was working with. I shadowed them and while I was doing my HNC that Morson were funding for me. I went round and I learned all about like how computerised maintenance systems, we went through reliability-centred maintenance and spares and obsolescence.
I went through technical documentation and then I came to the asset care department and I never left and I love it.
Do you have a career hero?
I wouldn’t say I have one particular. I think it’s a lot of the people that I’ve met along the way and they’ve all supported me in different kind of aspects. A lot of what I know is what people have shown me and taught me along the way. Whether that’s like just being how to be perceived in the office and the way that you speak to people and handle relations and stuff, and then the pure engineering knowledge that some people have shared with me.
But I think honestly, I genuinely would say it, it’s the people that I’ve been able to work with along the way that are like my kind of heroes, my inspiration, because I just want to be as good as they are to me.
How do you find working with Morson Projects?
Probably about seven of the eight and a half years I’ve worked for Morson I’ve been on asset care now and I absolutely love it. I’ve just become asset care team manager. I love the work I like the variation of being able to spend some of your week in the office and others is on site, on plant and it’s really gratifying when you go out and you see something that you looked at three years ago, you actually see that they’ve done something based on your recommendations and your findings and know it is valued input and that you do find things that they missed.
How would you like to change the industry for the better?
I’m excited to fly the flag for more women, which is always really cliché, but there’s not that many. I think there’s three of us in our office, four, small numbers. So, I’d like to fly the flag for women and I’d like to say I enjoy seeing the actual value of my work and seeing things be implemented that I spotted. And I’ve seen a make a difference. I work on the Sellafield site and being part of the story of that being decommissioned and making a difference to that, given the fact it’s on my doorstep as well, it’s really it’s really nice to see that. And I’d like to make a difference to that whole story. However small. It’s a difference. And I’d also really like to give back the same level of care that people showed to me when I was new and I was training, and I’d be that person for them because it was a massive thing to me when they did that for me to be that person
What would you tell your 14-year-old self if you could?
I had anything to tell, like a 14-year-old me it would be, I wish I could slap in the face honestly and go, stop it, stop being bloody shy!
I was bullied for being smart when I was a kid and people took the mickey and I hid it and I tried not to come across as clever. Don’t be ashamed of being smart because it’s your greatest asset. Why are you ashamed of it? Because I’m not me.
I know I’m so competitive when it comes like college or degree or anything. I’m like, I want top marks, I want to beat everyone and I’m starting my HNC and because I hadn’t done the bridging course and one of the tutors on the first day I started this turned around and said you’re going to fail because I’ve not seen you you’ve not done the bridging course and you’ve not done the ONC. I had like you know I’ve the UCAS points to get onto the course and I was like I’m going to prove you wrong.
And I got a distinction in every single one of his lessons and I was like, it was kind of like my own little way of going… Hah. Told you!
Chloe Hughes is an aviation Stress Engineer at Morson Projects. Having a long-standing enthusiasm for aviation nurtured by a love of sci-fi, Chloe has trodden an unconventional path to lead her to working in aerospace. For PathFinders, we spoke to her about her journey and the lessons she’s learned along the way.Watch her story here
David Richardson is Senior Manager for Maintenance Services at Chartright Air Group, based in Ontario, Canada.
British-born David was captivated by aviation engineering from a young age. His passion took him first to a career in the Royal Air Force, then into contracting, before making another big leap to live on the other side of the world with his young family.
For PathFinders, we spoke to David about his passion for aviation, his life in engineering and his advice for veterans looking to make the transition from a forces career into a civilian career.
When you were in school, what did you see your career as? What were your aspirations?
I did OK through school, and I developed an interest in aviation and a desire to join the industry through going to air shows. I had a bit of a challenging upbringing, so I wanted to leave home quickly, and going into aviation was the way I wanted to go. There was no deviating from that from an early school age.
It was on the engineering side, how it works, how an aircraft gets off the ground that fascinated me. I just wanted to know more about that. Every time I saw an aeroplane take off, I would stop and watch, a little bit confused to be honest. How did that big heavy thing get off the ground?
The love of aircraft took me into applying to join the Royal Air Force. The ability to train and be paid at the same time with some travel did appeal to me. I started that process when I was around 16. I went through the interviews, and eventually I joined the RAF a month and a half after my 17th birthday.
How long did you spend in the RAF and what was your route through there like?
I spent 13 years with the RAF, went through my initial basic training, the soldier training for the first six weeks, then went off to Halton and did my technical trade training for several months. I was then posted out to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire around 1991. I was looking after Tornados, working on maintenance, both squadron and hanger work until 1997 when I was lucky enough to get a posting out Sardinia. I did a lot of cool things out there, looking after incoming aircraft like Hercules, VC10s and anything else that dropped in, like the Red Arrows. I spent a year there until the base closed.
Shortly before I was due to leave, I managed to get on a fitter’s course which was further training. Then I was posted off to RAF Cosford to do some more technical training, which came with a promotion. I spent a year there completing the training and I got a lucky posting to RAF St Morgan, just outside Newquay with the Sea Kings, initially going down there looking after maintenance in the hangers.
Then I moved into a role carrying out composite repairs and static and dynamic balance of the blades. And that’s where I stayed until 2003, when I left the RAF.
What are the challenges associated with leaving the armed forces and what advice would you give to somebody about to take that step?
It’s a daunting process. You’ve spent your career being babysat, for want of a better phrase, in my case from just 17 years old.
They give you the food, they tell you what to do, when to do it and they train you with the things that you need. Leaving that and going into Civvy St is difficult, it’s daunting. You start looking at some resettlement courses that the military offer you before you leave and you start scratching your head and thinking, where do I want to go? For me, not too difficult. I wanted to stay with aircraft and aircraft maintenance. In what direction I wanted it to go, I wasn’t sure. But you do get a period of resettlement time. So, for me that’s when I jumped into the contracted world. It gives you an introduction to Civvy Street while still having the protection of being in the military. There were about four months where I was kind of dipping between the military and contract work. But it is challenging. It’s a bit of a wake-up call, but the support is there.
I was fortunate because I was going out with a trade that was recognised outside the military, whereas for some of the other guys in other trades it might not be so easy. It’s more military-based trades versus Civvy Street so I came out with pieces of paper that that were instantly recognised by civilian employees.
As well as transitioning from the armed forces to a civilian career, you also made a step to move to a different country, moving to Canada. Talk to us about that journey, and the challenges you faced.
It’s always been kind of knee-jerk with my wife and I, we’ll look at something and we’ll react quickly. When I was working in the contract world, I got approached by a company manufacturing parts for the Airbus A380 and got offered a permanent role in Canada, with support and assistance in getting out there.
At that time, we did have a little girl. She was less than a year old and we were expecting our second child, so it was a bit daunting, to say the least – pregnant wife and a baby in arms and moving halfway across the world. I don’t know how we did it but we did!
The company, SNP Aerospace in Novia Scotia, came to Bristol to do some interviews. I interviewed there and got offered a job on the spot. Four months later, we were ready to leave.
They paid for the move and there was support there to get us across. These people tell you where to set up a bank account, or for your vehicle insurance, go to these people. They assist you to get the fundamentals in place.
We were ready to go. It was myself, my wife and my little girl, sat there all packed up. All our worldly belongings had already moved on a truck. We were ready to fly out the following morning to Nova Scotia and my dad came in and said “you’re not flying with a company called Zoom, are you?” I was. “Well, they just went bankrupt, and all the aircraft are grounded…” We had our money moving and our belongings were moving. We had a hotel, but we had rental cars booked. But the company that we were flying with just went bust and we didn’t have a flight out there the following day.
We had to scramble to get something else in place, but we’d already cancelled our UK credit cards with the intent to get Canadian ones once we got there. It was a challenge, but we managed to get there, via a couple of stops in the United States.
We landed into Halifax not knowing anybody or anything, we’d never set foot in Canada before! When we arrived, we spent the night there. We started to transition into life in Canada the next morning.
I was a production manager at that point. In that role, I looked after military contracts primarily. We were taking the wings off Aurora aircraft, so the four engines come off, the wings come off, the fin comes off, the vertical stabilisers come off and are all replaced with brand new items.
Following a spell with Air Canada, you’ve moved on to working in the private aviation field with Chartright. What is your role there?
We’re the biggest private jet business aircraft Charter company in Canada. And we have 53 aircraft on our books. Most are privately owned, and we have care, custody and control of those aircraft. The owners fly them, and when they’re not flying, they’re open to us to charter out on their behalf.
My position here at the moment is senior manager in maintenance services. I manage the base as far as maintenance goes, along with the bases we have in Florida, Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Ottawa and anywhere in between where we put aircraft. So now I spend a lot of time talking to very rich owners and explaining why they need to spend half a million dollars on their aeroplane!
Chloe Hughes is an aviation Stress Engineer at Morson Projects. Having a long-standing enthusiasm for aviation nurtured by a love of sci-fi, Chloe has trodden an unconventional path to lead her to working in aerospace. For PathFinders, we spoke to her about her journey and the lessons she’s learned along the way.Watch her story here
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Boxer Anthony Crolla is a Manchester legend. Billed as the city’s answer to the Rocky story, the label was hard-earned for the young boxer, who made his professional debut back in 2006 on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe v Sakio Bika at the Manchester Arena, a venue that the Mancunian prospect would thrive in a further 13 times throughout his career. A couple of early career losses were then overcome on the journey to winning the British lightweight title in 2011.
But before he had the shot at claiming a world title, Anthony Crolla would have to face an almost career-ending setback. In late 2014, he was the victim of a vicious attack while defending his neighbours’ property from burglars, and ended up in hospital having been hit across the head with a concrete slab.
Within 12 months, he’d drawn against and then beaten Darleys Perez and claimed the WBA lightweight title, going to provide legendary nights for his dedicated fanbase.
Now retired and working to train the next generation of fighters, including his brother Will, Crolla speaks openly to PathFinders about his incredible career, both in and out of the ring, and what his hopes are for the future.
Did you yourself believe that you were going to become world champion even very early in your career?
Yeah, I did. Don’t get me wrong, if I would have been saying at some points in my career, I’d have probably got locked up saying I’m going to be a world champion when I’d lost early on in my career a few times. But I always knew what I was capable of and it’s just about sort of getting it right on the night and maturing and that a little bit of luck .
Hard work is what gets you there a lot of the times. And talent as well, a mixture of things. But a lot of the times you need that little bit of luck. There’s been some unbelievable boxers, unbelievable fighters who’ve not managed to get to where they wanted to, not got the break for one reason over and over. Thankfully, I did get my break.
I feel like I never stopped sort of believing that I could get to that level deep down, you know, like I said, even when I was sharing a bunk bed with my brother after fights! I was bluffing the Million Dolla nickname for so long!
Anthony Crolla finally achieved his dream of a world title in the second fight with Darleys Perez, after overcoming a horrific injury. He describes his journey:
“It happened in the December; I was meant to fight in January. I chased some burglars who were in my neighbour’s house a few streets away and then copped for a concrete slab on my head on the blind side and ended up seriously injured in hospital.
Talking about dark moments, that was definitely up there. I believed after that night that it had all been taken away from me. I was just praying doing all the rehab, hoping that one day I’d get cleared to box again.
But obviously on the first day, with the injuries I did think, no chance. I was down and I was thinking, I have a young family. I just moved into my first house with girlfriend and my little boy and it was a pride thing. Thinking I’ve got to provide for them. And the only way I know how to provide is to box and, and I think it might’ve been taken away from me.
So, I was it was the pride. Imagine I have to send them back to live at her mum and dads, because I can’t afford to look after them. Hopefully I would have been successful at something else. It was a horrible, worrying time.
Thankfully it then I got a second chance and that’s what that second chance and that was part of the courage building. I was always dedicated, but I knew I had to get it absolutely everything to make sure I fulfilled, you know, what I wanted to do.
You live, you learn, and everything happens for a reason, don’t it? It very nearly cost me my career, and it could have cost me more, but thankfully it didn’t.”
