Dispatches August 08

Thank you, Gastec

‘Dear Maria and all at Gastec

Just a quick letter to say a big thank you to everyone at Gastec for the excellent training I received during my time with you.

Having spent 10 years in the Armed Forces I have completed my fair share of training and vocational courses, but never in this time have I had an instructor who not only is hugely knowledgeable but also has an excellent way in which material is passed from teacher to student (and remember HM Forces are said to be the best trained in the world) a very big thank you to Surge. Thank you also to all on assessments Ricky and Paul for having the ability to explain questions which are supposedly written in English into an understandable format.

And finally a massive thank you to Maria and Pam for being flexible with the structure of the course, allowing me to pursue other commitments whilst at Gastec. I am unsure whether this qualification will lead to my next career due to external factors but I will always remember my time at Gastec. I have also passed on the good work being done at Gastec to the CTP and will always recommend them to those I know who are interested in a career in gas engineering.

Yours Sincerely

Ian Wood

Junior Technician’

Steve and Maria Jenkins are the husband and wife team who have run the Gastec training (see the advertisement on page 2) facility in Stacey Bushes, Milton Keynes for more than 10 years. In 2004 they decided to expand the range of courses to include plumbing, electrics and now oil at facilities at Kingston, also in Milton Keynes. The original Stacey Bushes site has been refurbished and is now solely dedicated to City & Guilds plumbing training.

They have obtained accreditation from a number of governing bodies, as well as becoming a preferred supplier to the Career Transition Partnership and an approved provider for the use of ELCs.

They recently received the following letter from an RAF student who completed the four-week new entrant gas course.

New chief instructor joins TASK International

TASK International, who provide specialist training throughout the UK and internationally, have announced that Barry Strevens QPM has been appointed as chief instructor of their close protection course.

Strevens’s career includes 30 years’ experience in the special branch. He was responsible for the protection of Lady Thatcher for her nine years as prime minister and then set up her security arrangements after she left office. He also ran the intelligence cell on Irish terrorism. More recently he was head of security of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s protocol division, responsible for conferences, VIP visits in the UK and overseas, and foreign missions in London. He brings a wealth of practical advice and instruction to people looking for a career in CP, having himself worked in the sector at high level around the world.

Awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in 1998, he has already been lecturing on TASK’s courses at HerstmonceuxCastle in East Sussex, but will now be increasing his presence there.

Mark Harry, Director of Training, is pleased by the move. ‘Barry has a huge amount of on-the-ground experience in close protection, and he brings a practical approach to the course.’ The three-week programme has been run on a monthly basis for many years. Recently acquired by The Inkerman Group, the company is currently expanding and building on its past.

Inkerman Group chief executive Gerald Moor explains that ‘Barry’s increased presence and involvement will add a great deal. He is extremely experienced both internationally as well as nationally and those participating on these courses in the future will benefit.’ Since acquiring the business in October last year, The Inkerman Group has further integrated the two businesses by employing successful TASK students in its own CP teams.

Last orders

William Alderson left the Royal Navy more than eight years ago at the end of his contract as a petty officer steward, having deployed on the Falkland Islands war and served on ships all around the world. Skills and qualifications gained in the service that he now find useful include ‘leadership and management, NVQ assessor in hotel and hospitality management, firefighting and first aid.’

His resettlement training included a Licensed Trade Diploma with Herron House which he found ‘well run and useful,’ and he found his first job as duty manager at the Lumley Castle Hotel through the ‘very useful’ RFEA. Alderson soon moved to join J D Wetherspoon as a pub manager and runs ‘the company’s busiest food outlet. I am responsible for all management including stock and cash control, staff training, induction, and ensuring that all legal requirements of running a pub are adhered to. The job is always challenging.’

Differences he finds between his Navy days and his new life include: ‘The quality of people. Service people are more “can do” and have a sense of urgency whereas civilians are more “job’s worth – that’s not my job attitude”. Also, working for a profitmaking company, budgets and controls are obviously more restrained. I also think that civilians lack comradeship and are lacking the wicked humour of service people. Jobwise I feel there are positives and negatives in both walks of life.’

One definite advantage he reports is a significant difference in salary.

From RAF Regiment to telecommunications project management

Ex-Senior Aircraftsman Shane O’Donnell, 38, served 12 years in the RAF, leaving in December 1999 for ‘quality of life and wanting to settle down in one place to start a family and develop an new career.’ His service had taken him around the UK and to Cyprus, and he had developed ‘not too many practical skills that were called upon for a civilian,’ except things like dependability and attention to detail. However he finds that many employers look favourably on Service leavers’ management, communication and organisational skills.

A Career Transition Workshop was ‘extremely useful as the time spent there if used correctly and focused on your desired career path can reap rewards.’ He then took a City & Guilds multi-mode fibre and copper communications training course with CableNet (now CNet) at Bury St Edmunds, which was ‘very well run and provided me with the first step into a progressive career.’ (He has since used the company to train his own staff as well as taking further qualifications with them himself). He is also PRINCE 2 qualified.

The RFEA offered ‘valuable advice,’ but his first job as an installation engineer came through his own job search. For the last two years O’Donnell has been the project manager responsible for the smooth day to day running of a major project at 1,200 sites in the north east of the UK. ‘I manage and implement all works, but I can be anywhere in the world.

The works can be as simple as a few communication outlets up to the full cabling of office blocks and data centres where thousands of outlets are required. I can be called upon to manage various contractors from other trades.

‘I love my job as I am responsible for the welfare of my workforce and am the face of the company whenever and wherever I work. In civilian life you are responsible for your own doings. You are expected to work hard to earn your pay and, if you feel that you are not being valued or overlooked, you can move on to another company and pursue your career elsewhere. Although you must appreciate that you may be starting at the bottom rung of your new career, with patience, a little luck and a lot of effort you can be as good as you want to be.

Military graduates blow their own trumpets

Forty-five military musicians have graduated this year from the University of Salford, including Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Smith – the Army’s principal director of music. The graduates have been studying on the MA Music (Performance) course and this year’s crop of military students is the largest the University has seen in its three year involvement with the military. The Army and Royal Marines musicians include brass and wind specialists from many units.

Although all the Service students are already professional musicians, the course provides additional training by performing increasingly more difficult recitals and gaining a more thorough understanding of music through research and lectures from visiting professors.

‘As a conductor, I am accustomed to researching the music I am performing,’ says Smith. ‘But this course has given me the incentive to go further and study the psychology of performance, an area in which I have always been interested. I have enjoyed the challenge of academic study and the satisfaction of developing my knowledge and understanding.’

Dr Robin Dewhurst, course leader and Honorary Music Advisor for the Royal Marines says: ‘As the biggest employer of musicians in the UK, the military has paid us a fantastic compliment by sending so many personnel to study here.’

The course not only helps the musicians in their current employment, but also provides a qualification which will enable them to get jobs in teaching and musical direction when their time in the forces is at an end.

Gas and electrical training centre in Portsmouth

To provide local training for Service leavers and people wishing to develop their qualifications, Steve Willis Training Portsmouth have launched a range of Level 3 electrical and gas training packages. With the first courses starting in September 2008 southcoast learners looking to develop their next career now have the opportunity to train locally alongside industry professionals.

There are great job opportunities within the domestic gas and electrical industries and it is important to equip learners with the right qualifications and skills needed by employers. The company ‘know the industry very well’ and claim ‘a good reputation for delivering customer focused, high quality training across the building engineering services. It is what we do best. Regardless of your experience - whether upgrading skills, looking for a new career or cross-skilling – our packages offer you a training solution.’

As an ELC approved provider and a CTP preferred supplier, Service students can use the full range of grants towards the cost of these packages, and training advisors are available to help with the best ways of achieving career plans.

Both the company’s training and assessment centres run programme of courses that include: safe handling of refrigerants, gas, electrics, water, air conditioning and health and safety, as well as several specialist courses. They can also design and present bespoke courses for larger groups, and onsite courses, where they train at the client’s premises.

For more information phone 02392 190190 or e-mail portsmouth@stevewillis.com.

Enhancing transferable skills – at a distance

Effective management skills are highly sought after in today’s competitive business environment. Employers recognise the importance of experience, but Service leavers can add significant value to their prospects by backing this up with a recognised qualification.

In recognition of this, aspire , a business unit incorporated within Loughborough College, has developed a practical route that allows students to achieve the Institute for Leadership & Management’s Level 5 diploma in management through distance learning. This award should be of benefit both in-service and later, boosting career prospects in preparation for resettlement into civilian life.

The College says that the programme is ‘specifically designed to meet the needs of those in the Armed Forces. Flexible enough to travel with you either on detachment or posting, it represents an opportunity to achieve a nationally recognised, management qualification around your own workload.’

The qualification comprises seven modules designed to broaden skills in management and leadership including: the management of information; managing improvement; critical thinking; finance; organisational culture and ethics; and leading innovation and change. It has a flexible start date, online and distance learning resources sent directly to the student, continuous tutor support, free first year membership of the

Institute and, above all, a degree level qualification aspire also offer other open leadership, management and coaching, and mentoring programmes at their centrally located site in Loughborough or they can design and deliver bespoke events at any location throughout the UK.

Further details are available on 08451 662958, by e-mail from aspireleadership@loucoll.ac.uk, or visit the website at www.aspireleadership.co.uk/mod

Military pride comes to Manchester

From 12th July to 12th October, the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester presents Military Pride, a display which reveals through portrait, photography and personal testimony the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people within the context of conflict, war and military service. It also covers changes in historical and cultural context and a timeline of post-1945 legislation and policies within the Services.

The 12 personal testimonies reflect how war and conflict have shaped people in the LGBT communities' lives from 1945 to the present day. The display aims to celebrate the achievements as well as reflect adversity, showing the positive contributions they made to the Armed Forces and examine how experiences may have changed since 1945.

Catherine Roberts from the museum describes these experiences as ‘a largely hidden history,’ and hopes that the exhibition will start ‘to reveal and celebrate it.’

Entrance is free, seven days a week from 10am to 6pm at The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1TZ.

It is close to Harbour City Metrolink and Junction 9 of the M60. For more information phone 0161 836 4000, e-mail iwmnorth@iwm.org.uk or visit the website at www.iwm.org.uk. To view a timeline on equal rights in the Armed Forces from 1955 onwards visit www.proud2serve.net/lifestyle/ theroadtoequality.htm.

Graduating under fire

The first graduates of a course, which included military people who studied on operations, recently attended their graduation ceremony. The War in the Modern World MA is offered by King’s College London’s Department of War Studies. It is an entirely non-residential web-delivered master’s programme with online content, and is highly interactive. Academics teach the students and provide continual feedback. The first students joined in 2005; the student body has now grown to more than 100, with next month’s intake the highest yet at over 50. Major Rupert Pim studied in Kosovo. ‘I became accustomed to starting work at 10 o’clock at night and working through until the small hours, depending on what happened out on the ground. On a number of occasions, germinating academic brilliance was cut short by a call from the operations room, not to be revisited for many hours. Other work was completed on exercises on Salisbury Plain, at St James’s Palace and in the library at the MoD.

The course has been an opportunity to study my chosen profession and to set myself academic challenges far removed from the physical reality of modern soldiering. That has been demanding at times but ultimately an extremely rewarding experience.’

Major Nicholas Dymond has ‘been in two jobs since starting the course. I planned all of the voyages of four RORO ships for two years and also designed and ran the contract tender for the Pakistan road line of communication linking operations in Afghanistan with the Indian Ocean. More lately I have been commanding 88 Postal & Courier Squadron, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously. I found myself travelling almost constantly; apart from a five-week period in Basra, I moved at least once every 10 days. I actually wrote my dissertation from scratch in two three-hour sittings on a laptop in a portacabin in Kandahar. The course has been excellent.’

Recognise your experience in human resource management or development

‘Becoming a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development shows commitment to professionalism in the field of HR Management and HR Development’, say cHRysos HR Solutions. It is also increasingly a requirement for employment within the HR profession.

For individuals with five years’ experience in management, the last three of which have been in an HR management or development role, the most appropriate way to achieve membership of the CIPD is likely to be through the Professional Assessment of Competence (PAC) programme. This is a competence-based route to membership, enabling individuals to have their experience assessed against the CIPD’s professional standards. With the support of an adviser, candidates provide evidence of their experience, and produce a management research report.

Completion of the programme leads to chartered member status, and chartered fellowship may follow with seven years’ experience in the profession. cHRysos HR Solutions are accredited to offer the PAC programme. A network of advisers provides support and guidance to candidates, and a fast-track approach is available, enabling it to be completed in four to six months. People with an MBA are exempt from one PAC module and completion of the programme provides the individual with access to a top-up MSc in Strategic Personnel and Development.

Life and variety in railway consultancy

Life in as a signalling or telecommunications engineer in a railway engineering consultancy is varied, as Scott Wilson’s engineers have found in working to demanding timescales and standards, in the UK and throughout the world.

Projects have varied from acting as technical adviser to financial institutions and adjudicating whether schemes are providing value for money, often working in ten of millions of pounds, to detailed designs where the logic combinations and termination of each wire of safety systems are fully documented. In the UK, engineers have designed alterations to signalling systems in line with redevelopment of major junctions; at Shortlands Junction, a new underpass employed up to 40 designers to produce 32 stages of design which were commissioned over a period of two years.

Engineers have enabled the introduction of advanced data and voice systems in the UK rail network, and provided detailed design of trackside systems for west coast main line enhancements. Current UK commissions include Airtrack, the development of train services from the south of England into Heathrow’s Terminal 5, planning the Manchester/Stalybridge area in North-west England and the reopening of the Waverley Line in Scotland.

International projects include the European rail train management system including high speed line projects in Holland and the Danish resignalling programme. They are developing a line in Kazakhstan for the extraction of oil reserves, with other operations in Pakistan and Australia. Telecommunications engineers have also recently been involved in specifying systems and networks for Middle East states; including man-made islands, golf courses and national assembly.

Trained electrical and electronic engineers can easily acquire the skills that are specific to railway, and make a career in the industry. Individuals who have served in the Forces have used their disciplined approach to develop themselves to new levels of competence and job satisfaction.

Workmanship Warranty Scheme

Specialist Training Courses – a tiling training company – has been featured on the BBC working lunch programme and is a preferred supplier to the Career Transition Partnership. It has two training centres, at Harlow and Warrington, with a third opening soon in Nottingham.

Managing director Mark Humphreys was himself a master tiler for 18 years, and ‘is passionate about the tiling industry. Today, there is no legislation governing the industry. A professional can turn up at any customer’s home purporting to be an expert but in reality having very little experience. Anyone could wake up one morning and think “I’ll be a tiler today”.

‘To combat this, we have launched the Specialist Training Approval Registry (STAR) to guarantee the quality and workmanship of all students who have attended a four-week advanced tiling training course. In addition to attending the course, all tilers will be assessed by our senior assessors, and this assessment will be followed up each year to ensure all tilers on the scheme are kept up to date with all new technologies. The vision is for the STAR warranty to be to tiling as Gorgi is to gas.’

Last month saw the UK’s first tiler joining the STAR scheme at Harlow. Martin Hicks of M H Plumbing and Tiling is ‘delighted that finally, there is a scheme that endorses my skill in professional tiling which will go a long way in stopping untrained individuals claiming they have the necessary skill.’

For further information visit the website at: www.tilingcourses.co.uk

Career Transition Partnership news

The first Air Conditioning & Refrigeration course run by RRC Portsmouth finished on 12th June with the 13 students passing all modules of the course to receive their construction skills certification in basic electrics, pipework and brazing, and safe handling of refrigerants. Course attendees all commented positively on the quality of training delivered, and the helpful staff at Business Edge Ltd in Waterlooville, who were always on hand to assist.

Both Business Edge and the Portsmouth area Regional Employment & Training Manager are now providing assistance to those individuals seeking employment as air conditioning engineers. Some major facilities management companies and smaller employers in the industry looking to fill vacancies nationwide have expressed an interest in Service leavers who have completed this programme. Further courses are scheduled for September and November 2008 and throughout 2009. For further information, contact Grace Tyrrell on 02392 724595 (Mil: 9380 24595) or e-mail gtyrrell@ctp.org.uk

CTP and FeRFA (The Resin Flooring Association) have designed a bespoke surface preparation course for Service leavers. This will be delivered at a training school in Lincoln with the first course starting on 10th November 2008. Surface preparation is a highly specialised activity within the construction industry, with companies in across the UK seeking to recruit more than 830 new employees this year to satisfy demand. The five-day course will provide students with comprehensive training and registration for an NVQ Level 2 as the pathway to their new career.

Following training, individuals may also have the opportunity of a work placement with one of the major companies in the industry as well as securing their CSCS health and safety card which is now mandatory to work on construction sites within the UK. Progression within the trade can be quick due to the demand within this sector, with managers and supervisors reaching salaries of more than £35,000. For further details see the Resettlement Training Centre Course Booklet downloadable from www.ctp.org.uk

CTP staff are now making final preparations for their largest ever Employment Fair, which will take place at Ascot Racecourse on Wednesday 24th September 2008. Attendance is open to those going through the resettlement process, and also ex-Service people. Although the event will be taking place in the Southern region, employers will be recruiting for roles nationwide and available to advise on future opportunities, work placements and relevant training. At career presentations throughout the day, Service leavers will be able to learn about industries and particular employers, and the types of roles available.

Up to 120 companies are expected to attend, including employers like Honda UK, Scottish & Southern Energy, Carnival UK, EADS Astrium, QinetiQ (Metrix Consortium), Tesco, Siemens, Johnson Controls, Atomic Weapons Establishment and HSBC. A number of emergency services will be attending, including the police and prison services. Business Link will be on hand to give advice to those considering setting up their own business. CTP consultants will also be available to advise on services, training courses, interview skills and CVs. Representatives from the Regional Training Centre at Aldershot will be able to provide information on local and regional training.

Further information and booking details are available from the news page at www.ctp.org.uk. This includes directions and transport arrangements, as well as some frequently asked questions. Closer to the event, a list of confirmed employers will be available on the site.