Simon Bertaiola, second year EEE student, has recently been awarded a Power Academy scholarship.

The Power Academy is a unique partnership between industry and academia, established to address the looming skills shortage in power engineering through a combination of financial support and workplace mentoring for students.

Scholarships are awarded each year to students at participating universities which provide a bursary of £2,200 for each year of study, £220 for books and software, mentors from industry partners, paid summer work placements and annual seminars on important sector issues.

After completing the application form, taking part in a telephone interview, and finally a face to face technical and general interview, Simone has received his sponsorship with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). 

Simone says: ‘Getting this scholarship is extremely rewarding and means a lot to me since I strongly believe that the Power Academy is a very well-structured program which, unlike other internship, doesn’t begin and end in one summer: this means that I will be followed and advised throughout my academic career at Imperial and, eventually, afterwards. It also gives me the chance to work and gain experience in a very crucial sector in engineering, i.e. energy. The best part of it is that my sponsoring company really made me feel that they were investing in me as a person, as an individual, to make me improve professionally along with them, and I felt this without having started the internship yet so I’m really looking forward to starting it!’

Congratulations to Simone!

Find out more about the Power Academy.