A Different Approach
I guess the purpose of National Apprenticeship Week is for companies to share the success of their apprenticeship programs and for the young people that are starting their career as an apprentice.
I’m going to look at it in a different way this year, I’m going to use this week to thank Tridan and the people that helped me to become an engineer, teaching me the skills that cannot be learnt without a great team and for putting a training plan in place to suit me.
I started my journey into engineering in 2005, I had never had an interview before, this was all a first for me.
I was the first apprentice at Tridan for a good few years and the first that Paul Hawkins had taken on under his leadership as Managing Director of Tridan.
I still to this day remember the strong smell of coffee on my way to his office for my interview. Strange how that stays with you. I also remember my first job as if it was yesterday too.
I walked into the MD`s office and saw two people behind the desk wearing smart shirts and ties, I can only imagine their thoughts as I walked in wearing jeans, t shirt and a baseball cap with a handful of parts that I had made on my dad’s lathe.
At the time It never occurred to me that these two people would be so influential in my career in engineering, so, I should start by thanking these two first…
Thanks to Paul Hawkins and Bob Lomas for taking on what I can only describe as a risk in employing a young under dressed lad. I must have done something right because I got the job and more importantly an apprenticeship with Tridan.
I started on the 25th of April 2005, and I am still here now as CNC Milling Supervisor.
Thank you to Bob for the hard work in setting a training program for me and the company to work to. The endless help and advice over the years of my training was so valuable, what a great engineer I had the honour of being mentored by.
Thank you to all the engineers, supervisors and managers that took their time to teach me, make sure I was safe and did things correctly as well as the encouragement and support.
Thanks to Gavin, Dave, Sol, Trevor, Terry, Bryan and Paul C, what a great bunch. Sorry if I missed a few, there was so many names. We still support and help each other to this day.
Now, after nearly 20 years I’m on the other end. Helping to train the next generation of young apprentices. Training is done by the team, the better the team, the better the trainee…
So perhaps a different approach for apprentice week but I think the companies and people need the appreciation too.
Written by William Vaughan-Chatfield
