In celebration of National Careers Week and International Women’s Day 2025, we caught up with Carleton High School alumni, Laura Varley, to hear about her impressive career journey since leaving school. Laura has been making waves in engineering, designing and building critical infrastructure that improves water quality and ensures access to clean drinking water.
From working on innovative projects like a ‘fish pass’ in Sheffield to developing a reservoir near Bristol, Laura’s career is a testament to the impact of engineering on both the environment and society. We caught up with Laura to discuss how her time at Carleton High School set the foundation for her career in engineering and the skills she continues to use in her day-to-day work.
Laura Varley’s Career Journey
1. Could you share the path you took to get into engineering, and how your time at Carleton High School helped shape your career?
“I always enjoyed problem solving and making things through arts and crafts. I studied Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Dance at College. Then I studied Engineering at University, specialising in Civil and Structural Engineering. During school I had a good maths, physics, and design technology teachers who helped develop my interest in those subjects.”
2. What skills did you develop during your time at school that you still use in your engineering career today?
“I use a lot of the maths and physics I learnt during school, every day. From geometry for calculating areas of concrete to order or coordinates to build on, to Pythagoras for calculating the gradient in a pipe, or calculating the force exerted on a wall to see if it will collapse. I also use CAD software that I learnt at school to create drawings .”
3. What advice would you give to pupils interested in pursuing a career in engineering?
“I would encourage everyone to become an engineer. Engineering is such a vast discipline. There is space for everyone. Whether you want to be more hands on and go through an apprenticeship, or more academic and go through university. It’s very rewarding to visually see your progress every day on a construction site, and even more rewarding at the end of the project when your structure is put into service and a problem is solved.”
Interested in Laura’s projects? Click on the links below:
Fish Pass Project
Academic Paper
If you’re considering a career in engineering or simply curious about the journey, Laura’s story is a powerful reminder of the importance of early education and the lasting impact it can have on future success.