Fallon Campbell From Melvich Near Thurso Named As Apprentice of the Year At Awards In London

11th November 2025

Rising star from North Scotland honoured at event to celebrate brightest and best in industry.

An electrical apprentice from North Scotland is celebrating after being recognised for her contribution to industry at the 13th annual Engineering Construction Industry ECI Training and Development Awards in London.

Fallon Campbell, who works on the NRS Dounreay nuclear power station and is from Melvich near Thurso, was named Apprentice of the Year at a prestigious ceremony at Glaziers Hall to honour the very best of engineering construction talent.

The event, organised by the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) and hosted by Dr Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, brought together industry leaders, as well as the rising stars of tomorrow, for a celebration of excellence in training and development in the ECI.

The 21-year-old came out on top after being shortlisted in the final three for the apprentice award, which recognises the achievements of individuals who are working towards or have successfully completed an apprenticeship pathway in the past 12 months.

Fallon, who is responsible for the maintenance, repair, installation and testing of electrical systems across the nuclear site, was recognised for completing her electrical apprenticeship programme six months ahead of schedule and for being the site's "go-to apprentice in electrical engineering".

In particular, the award submission highlighted the impact she made during a placement with a local company.

She was chosen to represent NRS Dounreay at Nuclear Parliament Week in London.

She was a lead apprentice on a STEM outreach project and led fundraising activities among the apprentice group.

Even more she became a role model promoting women in engineering, including engaging pupils in her former school.

Fallon, who was handed the trophy by award category sponsor the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), grew up just 10 minutes away from Dounreay.

She said: "There are so many engineering opportunities in our area. I suppose I always wanted to work at Dounreay and hoped I would get a job there.

"I was really nervous about the awards, so it feels great to win and to have been recognised as a role model.

"It feels really nice to be promoting engineering, especially for young women in the area. Any other young women thinking of doing the same, I'd just say ‘go for it'. There's so much opportunity and it's not as scary as it seems, everyone is so lovely."

A judging panel of industry representatives - made up of Tracey Shelley (BCECA), John Simpson (ECIA), Mark Riley (Phillips 66 Limited), Steve Hunt (Altrad) and Helen Woodward Davies (EDF Energy) - picked the overall winners based on the significant contributions they have made both to the ECI and their own organisations.

The ECI spans sectors that focus on the construction, maintenance and decommissioning of heavy industry, including oil and gas, nuclear, power generation, renewables, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, chemicals, food and drink, pharmaceuticals and water treatment.

ECITB Chief Executive Andrew Hockey said: "As the industry-led skills body for engineering construction, we are committed to developing the skills needed for the delivery of critical infrastructure projects, energy security and net zero ambitions across Great Britain.

"We spoke of this commitment when launching our new strategy, Leading Industry Learning, back in September, which outlined how we will help to address skills shortages and support industry growth amid an increasingly complex and fast-changing external environment.

"We highlighted how achieving the outcomes from our 2026-30 strategy will require collaboration and commitment well beyond the ECITB alone.

"It fills me with great hope, therefore, to see this commitment to skills development showcased throughout industry in the inspiring entries we received this year for the awards.

"Congratulations to Fallon and to all the winners and finalists, who are great examples of these success stories over the past year and set standards to which we all aspire."

See the full list of winners from the ECI Training & Development Awards 2025

PHOTO
Fallon Campbell (left in the photo), who works on the NRS Dounreay nuclear power station and is from Melvich near Thurso, was named Apprentice of the Year at a prestigious ceremony at Glaziers Hall to honour the very best of engineering construction talent.

Note
The Dounreay power station stopped producing electricity in 1994, when its last operational reactor, the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR), was shut down. The other two experimental reactors on the site had ceased operations earlier: the Dounreay Materials Test Reactor (DMTR) in 1969 and the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR) in 1977.

The site is now in the process of being fully decommissioned, which is a major nuclear clean-up project. While electricity generation has ceased, other nuclear-related activities, primarily waste management and decommissioning work, continued for some years, with commercial reprocessing ending in 1998. The entire decommissioning process is expected to continue for many more decades.

Apprenticeships
Dounreay power station takes on a varying number of apprentices each year, with recent intakes generally ranging from the high teens to low twenties.
Here are the specific numbers from recent years:
2025 (current/next intake): 23 new apprenticeships were made available.

2023: 17 apprentices were recruited in total (10 engineering, 5 business, and 2 construction apprentices).

2022: 13 apprentices were hired (8 engineering, 3 business, and 2 construction apprentices).
2021/2022 (review period): 13 apprentices were hired (8 engineering, 3 business, and 2 quantity surveying apprentices).

The specific roles and exact numbers can fluctuate annually based on the site's decommissioning needs.