Sandy Bodet, Structure Fitter At Airbus, Awarded The Gold Medal For Best Apprentice Aircraft Mechanic

A 21-year-old woman who has been training as an apprentice for more than two years at the Airbus plant in Saint-Nazaire has received the annual "Meilleurs Apprentis de France – Best Apprentice in France" competition. Sandy Bodet has been rewarded with the Gold Medal for Best Apprentice Aircraft Mechanic, Airframes. which she received at the French Senate on March 6, just a few days before International Women’s Day.

Bodet works on the structural assembly of the nose cone of Airbus’ emblematic aircraft, the A380, as a structure fitter. Encouraged by her tutor, she took part in the 2012 edition of the competition.
 
Bodet remains modest about her success, explaining that she was initially going to take a literature Baccalaureate when she really wanted to do something more technically oriented, where she could work with her hands. “My father, who also works at Airbus on the A320, never thought that one day I would follow in his footsteps,” she says. She sees nothing unusual about women working on the shopfloor. “There are ten other women working in the same sector as me,” she explains.
 
“The example set by Sandy Bodet is really inspirational, it highlights the fact that a woman can work and flourish in a technical profession,” said Thierry Baril, Chief Human Resources Officer EADS and Airbus. “We’re multiplying our initiatives to encourage more women to join us. Out of the 3,000 recruitments planned for 2013, our target is that 25% of them should be women. This, because I am convinced that a more balanced female participation at every level of the company and a better gender mix in our teams can only improve our performance,” he added.
 
Airbus employs some 59,000 people of over 100 different nationalities in design and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, the UK, and Spain, as well as subsidiaries in the U.S., China, Japan and in the Middle East.
 
Airbus has hired about 10,000 new staff members over the last two years to allow it to cope with an order book equivalent to seven years’ production, and pursue the development of new programs such as the A320neo (new engine option) or the A350 XWB family. This recruitment drive will continue in 2013. In France, Airbus counts nearly a thousand work/study apprentices who can be found in all of the company’s functions. They are preparing diplomas going from CAP vocational training certificates to postgraduate degrees.

(Image provided by Airbus)

FMI: www.airbus.com/work