Construction

Name: Dave Curran

Rank on Exit: SSgt

Years of Service: 23 years

Qualifications Gained: Level 2 professional qualification in plumbing

SSgt Dave Curran, 44, is due to leave the RAMC in April after 23 years’ Service, having specialized as a Combat Medical Technician. ‘I took some GCSEs while in a static post,’ he says, but ‘I didn’t get the chance to start the degree I wanted due to postings.’ He continues: ‘I plan to start plumbing full time when I leave the Forces, so it will be nothing like my Service role’, although ‘experience from some of my postings will be of use in future employment’. His CTW was, he says, ‘a useful course, which made me very aware that experience can be as important as qualifications. It’s all about how you sell yourself.’

He also attended a professional resettlement course with EBO. ‘Without a doubt,’ he says, ‘the course was run very well. It has provided me with a level 2 professional qualification in plumbing through excellent tuition and guidance. The use of an ex-Naval instructor to deliver the intense training package in a manner that we in the Forces understand, and at the same time complying with City & Guilds standards, is a stroke of genius. The course is run entirely within the EBO training centre and the purpose-built workshops mean it’s like being on a construction site. Civilian assessors and external verifiers are used during the course to sign off the portfolio that has to be completed over the six-week course.’ Following this course, Dave ‘completed some level 3 plumbing qualifications in energy efficiency, unvented system and water regulations at the same centre.’

He adds, ‘I haven’t yet left the Forces and am in regular contact with the CTP and RFEA, but most of the work I have been doing to date (unpaid, of course!) has been arranged through my wife’s friends or contacts of my own who understand that building a reputation is important in plumbing.’

Published February 2011

Name: Anthony Sansom

Rank on Exit: Cfn

Years of Service: 6 Years

Qualifications Gained: Multi-Skilled Plumbing and Gas courses

Cfn Tony Sansom left the REME in early 2008 after six years’ Service, having specialised as a metal smith. ‘I didn’t know anything but the Army,’ he says, ‘and wanted to see what civvy life was all about.’ His Army training gave him ‘a good understanding of engineering. When I left the Forces, despite being on oil rigs for two years, it was always my intention to do gas engineering in the hope of one day running my own business. I completed Multi-Skilled Plumbing and Gas courses, levels 2 and 3, at MET-UK, and got all my gas tickets in six months. MET’s courses are tough, but they are perfect for ex-Forces personnel. Mine included a placement with Homecare Appliances Ltd in South Shields.

‘My current job involves installing gas boilers, fires and cookers, as well as servicing and repairing them. I enjoy meeting new people every day and facing new challenges. Excellent people skills are needed and a can-do Forces attitude is required as you have to get on with the job. Rather like going on exercise, everything has to be in your van that you need to do your day’s work! Now, the buck stops with me in terms of other people’s safety – I can’t ask my Sergeant for help. Although I do not yet have my own business, there is the potential to do that one day, which gives me satisfaction.

‘I want to say to all Forces people out there, if you take the same attitude to civvy street as you do to your Service – highly motivated, being on time, keen, getting on with the job – you can be wherever you want to be, and you’ll excel in your chosen career.’

Published February 2011

Name: Iggy Gagola

Rank on Exit: Staff Sergeant

Years of Service: Years...

Qualifications Gained: Bathroom fitting and water regulation course

As a plant fitter, Royal Engineer Staff Sergeant Ignac “Iggy” Gagola had been on permanent postings in the UK and Germany as well as operational tours in Northern Ireland, the Middle East and the Balkans. C&G Construction Plant Mechanics courses and the Licentiateship Award in Mechanical Engineering are the backbone of his trade qualifications, whilst CLAIT and FEMIS (a workshop based computer program) award has also been helpful. The experience of running a ‘forward repair team in a mobile workshop has been very useful to my present employer, as he required a small fitter team and workshop setting up from scratch. Man management has also been a useful attribute.’

A career transition workshop was mainly useful in producing ‘a high quality CV’, and he followed this with a four-week bathroom fitting and water regulation course with PPL Plumbing Training in York. This was ‘very useful. I have fitted my own bathrooms in my property, done some small jobs for friends and appear to be the resident plumber for this company repairing leaky toilets, cisterns, dishwashers etc.’

Gagola obtained his job, as a crane engineer, through the RFEA. ‘I applied with about two weeks of service to do. First interview was that week. A second interview followed in my last week and I was offered employment starting a week after my final day. More than two years later he has a great deal more to do than ‘just repairing cranes. I supervise the workload of the other fitters, control stock, liaise with customers and report to the operations manager.’

Steady hours and being home every night are good news, and workshop management is similar to that in the Army. However, he does not have to be ready to go anywhere at short notice unless he wishes to. A slightly lower salary is more than offset by a company van and fuel allowance.

July 09

Name: Paul Mawer

Rank on Exit: Commando

Years of Service: 23

Qualifications Gained: Plumbing City & Guilds qualification

Ex-Royal Marine Captain Paul Mawer is a year ahead of him. After 23 years as a commando, he left last February to spend more time with his family and have more control over his life. Service around the world had developed, he believes, ‘a sense of responsibility, general appearance and manners, administrative and communication skills, reliability and confidence coupled with humility.’

Taking a Plumbing City & Guilds qualification during his least year of service he then attended a career transition workshop which he found useful for ‘composing CVs, and talking with other Service leavers of the same age with the same responsibilities and concerns.’ He also took an ACS (gas) course to enable Corgi (now Gas Safe) registration with GASTEC. He found the training which included work experience in north London ‘absolutely superb and couldn’t fault it.’ He followed this with Part P electrics training, again at GASTEC and a one-week tiling course in Salisbury.

Just four months ago, Mawer started as a self-employed plumber and gas fitter. He answers customers’ requests about plumbing problems – baths, sinks, showers, drains etc – and gas boilers and fires; as well as installing bathrooms, boilers and other household goods. After Service life he can find it lonely to work on his own and he needs to keep an accurate diary and stay on top of administration. But he enjoys dealing with the public, every day being different, being able to work when he wishes, and the practical nature of his work.

He hopes that a considerable drop in salary is temporary and that his finances will improve as he builds the business. But he finds it ‘great being my own boss, being able to plan my life around my family and only answering to my wife.’

July 09

Name: Tim Goundry

Rank on Exit: Major

Years of Service: 33

Qualifications Gained: Diplomas in management and logistics

Major Tim Goundry, Royal Logistic Corps, is currently serving in Headquarters 160 (Wales) Brigade. When he leaves the Army next January he will have completed a 33-year career as a supply specialist, serving in the UK, Germany, the Falkland Islands, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Belize, Macedonia, Afghanistan and Iraq. As well as obtaining diplomas in management and logistics, he believes that skills like ‘planning, scheduling, forecasting requirements, management of people and resources, budget control and communication skills’ will be useful in his next career.

A ‘very useful’ career transition workshop led to training in gas utilization (ACS), water regulations, un-vented heating systems, combination boiler fault finding, LPG and electrics with GASTEC. The course was ‘very professional, current and applicable. What I learned has given me the confidence to become self-employed straight away, and also gave the opportunity to work in the same environment as civilians undergoing the same course and those who were already working in the industry.

‘On the job work was pitched at the right level and was exactly what was needed. The opportunity to work for actual customers, developing a rapport with the customer through completion of the work and handing over to the job to the satisfaction of the client was first class.’

Goundry intends to complete an OFTEC oil course before becoming self-employed immediately on leaving the Army and has already started to develop a corporate identity and customer base.

July 09

Construction - Case Studies