One man’s resettlement - George Lockhart

Last month, at the age of 40 and after 24 years in the Army, Sergeant George Lockhart hung up his boots. He had served around the world on postings, operations and other deployments, as a digital and analogue telecommunications specialist, who values the management experience and flexibility he developed in the Forces, as well as ‘the diversity of different cultures and understanding that are a great help in dealing with everyday situations’. He also held diplomas in dry stone walling, and land, fishery and forestry management.

A Career Transition Workshop in Catterick ‘helped prepare for the change to civilian life, and was well worth it’, and he then took the ‘first ever domestic and commercial LPG gas engineer course organised by Met–UK (www.met-uk.com) but with Calorforce as the trainers. So I feel I had to put pen to paper to let fellow Servicemen and women know what it’s like.

‘Calorforce normally recruits engineers already qualified in natural gas engineering and gives them a short period of re-training to LPG, but it came up with the idea of taking people with no gas engineering background and training them from scratch. It wanted to recruit from the Armed Forces as it has had ex-Service people working for it who had done the changeover from natural gas and has been very impressed with the results.

‘The introduction day at the Training Facility and Depot in Stoney Stanton, Leicestershire, was when we made the decision to participate in the course and where I met my classmates, a Sergeant from the RAMC and a Corporal from the RE.’ The two weeks’ residential training that followed covered the basics of health and safety, the characteristics of LPG, and the way it is stored and used. ‘This was interesting but very intense and different to what we were used to in the Forces.’

Next came 12 weeks’ managed job placement with the Calorforce engineers, who ‘taught us what we needed to know to get on in the job; they were a first-class bunch of guys. Then it was back to Stoney Stanton for assessment week. Only when the Calorforce assessor thought we were ready were we then sent to Natural Gas Services (Training) Ltd in Leeds (a superb training provider) for two more weeks’ training followed by a week of written and practical exams for an ACS qualification.

‘This included core domestic LPG, permanent dwellings, leisure accommodation vehicles, residential park homes, gas storage vessels, domestic meters, and commercial tightness testing and purging – all within 22 weeks. On successful completion of the ACS qualifications, guaranteed employment with Calorforce was assured, and this included a number of benefits and allowances.’

Lockhart ‘wanted to work outdoors and serve the community’, and finds that his job in the Yorkshire Dales satisfies both desires. Although qualified for only a few weeks, ‘one day I could be working on a liquid installation in Leeds or Newcastle and the next I could be on a farm in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales. It involves LPG installations; repairing, servicing and maintaining them for both domestic and commercial customers.’ He enjoys the variety of work and the places it takes him to, rural areas. As yet he has no dislikes.

He finds similarities with his Service job in having to think on his feet and ‘knowing that the decisions you make must be the correct ones because, if you don’t, someone’s life could be in danger when dealing with an explosive gas.’ He also continues to enjoy ‘banter with my colleagues and working as a team. Even though I’m part of a large UK-wide team, we still work together. I took a drop in salary. I had no illusions that I would come out and earn the money I was getting while serving, but the job satisfaction and my pension bridges the gap, so I’m not worse off but feel I’m better off with family life and job satisfaction.’