Darren engineers himself a great career with degree

When Darren May joined Thermacore Europe as a 20-year-old apprentice, a future at the leading edge of thermal management technology was an ambitious career goal.

Eight years on, Darren is an applications design engineer at Thermacore’s European headquarters in Ashington and is celebrating having graduated with an honours degree in mechanical engineering.

“It’s been a lot of hard work over a prolonged period, but my graduation day made it all worthwhile,” said Darren.

With his studying now behind him, Darren can focus on his work at Thermacore which sees him working on the 3D and 2D design and manufacture of cold plates and heat exchangers used in a wide range of sectors including military, aerospace, communications, medical and automotive.

Darren’s engineering apprenticeship was funded by Thermacore and Tyne North Training.

Between 2008 and 2012, he studied on day release at South Tyneside College. On completion, Darren combined his work at Thermacore with studying for his degree at Northumbria University.

“My qualifications will hopefully stand me in good stead for what I hope will be a long future in an industry that has experienced rapid growth and continued technological advances,” said Darren.

“I find my work extremely rewarding especially when I see a component I have designed using specialist computer software taken all the way through to production.”

Geoff Thompson, vice president of sales and marketing at Thermacore Europe, said: “It’s been fantastic for Darren’s friends and colleagues to see the promise of his early career coming to such fruition and it’s all down to his hard work and dedication.

“We’re all extremely proud of Darren and we’ve no doubt he’s going to go on to achieve great things in this industry.”

Thermacore is a global leader in the design, development and manufacture of thermal management solutions and technologies with customers including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The company employs more than 180 people across five facilities in the UK and USA, with 65 staff based at Ashington.