Former dancer engineers her way to OU success
A
The Open University product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jul 10, 2009
Hilda Myklebust, 35, has made a dramatic career change from dancer to engineer after gaining a Bachelor of Engineering qualification from the Open University while working full-time.
She is now responsible for keeping the BBC World Service on the air.
Hilda, 35, said: 'After I got my A levels I went straight to performing arts school and then to London to try and work as a dancer.' But dancing roles were few and far between and Hilda ended up working as a secretary in a technical department.
It was there she got into engineering work 'by the back door', as she says.
'The engineers at work were overloaded so I asked if they could show me what they were doing so I could help them.
'I found it was more interesting than the job I was supposed to be doing.
'I ended up working as a technical operator and I was sent on some in-house training courses.
'I asked if they knew of anywhere like the Open University that did engineering and they said "You can do engineering with the Open University".
'I was surprised as I thought the OU only did humanities degrees.' After doing a couple of engineering courses with the OU, Hilda decided to study for a BEng, which she received last September.
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