“Achieving Your Potential in Transportation ”

Kevin Gilbert EngTech MIHIE

Works Manager, CORMAC, Cornwall County Council (CCC)

Kevin has worked hard to rise up through the ranks with CCC. He first went to CCC on leaving school at 15, for six months work experience. Two years later - 1979 he saw, applied for, and got a vacancy on a general patching gang and then moved on to a carriage marking team. In 1988 he finally “took control” as a Charge Hand.  His early experience has given him some authority in his work, because the workforce knows him as a man “who can do any of the jobs required of them. This respect has stayed with Kevin, after his secondment to management services in 1993, and promotion to Works Manager in 1995.

Kevin’s next move was to recognize that his lack of formal educational qualifications would be a barrier to further personal progress, and he undertook the work to go for Eng Tech. Achieving this was a great boost as he formally became recognized “as part of the profession”. He has subsequently brought on many of the people working for him, and much enjoyed - and enjoys - seeing people grow in confidence and competence when given encouragement and a helping hand.  Kevin decided it was time to encourage him to go forward, and in 2004 joined IHIE to go ahead for IEng.  He had already become the first person to get NVQ3 for Highway Maintenance, and being ready to for IEng, found IHIE’s website “second to none” as a source of guidance and advice.  He acknowledges the help he has had from registered engineers, especially from the IHIE. and sees IEng as a gateway to future opportunities.

Kevin notices that there is no obvious route from schools into Civil Engineering, and often not via further education, and so CCC pursues a policy of “growing our own”. There is a question mark, if not a concern, over where future skilled people will come from into the profession, in the numbers required.

Sally Allen, Eng Tech IHIE

Technician, Highways Design,

Cornwall County Council

I gained my NVQ Level 3 in Transportation in May 2006 however this was not the first NVQ qualification I have undertaken.  In January 2002 I completed a Level 3 in Customer Service whilst working in the County Council’s Customer Care section. followed by a D32/D33 assessor award in September 2004.

I made the decision to undertake a level 3 in Transportation after I had moved to the Highway Design Group as a way of bench marking the skills I had learned against nationally recognised competencies.   I also saw it as an opportunity to think about the way I do things and how I could do some things better. 

The variety of standards available made it easier for me to select units which were relevant to the type of work I was doing, however, it’s hard making the choice before you have a full understanding of what each unit entails.

The most difficult part for me was learning to understand the individual elements within each of the units so that I could produce comprehensive evidence which would cover a range of units.  I found this a bit daunting at first, but once I had grasped the requirements of the performance criteria and knowledge and understanding within each unit I was able to achieve this quite easily.

I have found the whole process a worthwhile experience, not only because of the sense of achievement but also because I have been able to use my NVQ qualification as a stepping stone to achieving Eng Tech status with the IHIE.