Like many engineering companies Turnbull & Scott is strongly committed to the development of its workforce through apprenticeship programmes. A key challenge however is accepting that, in many cases, the talented young people will move on. But that’s life!
What is hugely rewarding on the other hand is when the ‘talent’ returns, technically and personally enriched by further learning and experiences gained through working in other companies. Such is a recent story at Turnbull & Scott with the return of Liam Gibson, an apprentice from the 2008 intake, who has recently been appointed Operations Manager.
Liam progressed rapidly from his apprenticeship at Turnbull & Scott through Production Engineer and Technical Support Engineer roles before moving on in 2014 to broaden his horizons. And broaden them he has certainly done, returning with armfuls of additional experience and qualifications which culminated in a BSc in Engineering Management from the University of The West of Scotland.
From Liam’s perspective he is hugely appreciative of the solid foundations that were laid through is apprenticeship and feels very fortunate to have been taken on by a company with such a positive approach to staff training, especially developing the young workforce.
In his own words Liam shared “What my apprenticeship gave me was the skills, experience, and confidence to progress internally onto new roles and projects. Moving on from T&S was a decision I found difficult at the time, but the experience I have gained in other industries has been invaluable and something that I simply would not have been able to gain had I been a ‘one company man’.
Turnbull and Scott made a considerable investment in my training, to which I owe my whole career. I have supplemented that training elsewhere and am excited to come back and apply all that I have learned and be a force for positive change in the organisation.
My hope is that in my new Role as Operations Manager I can bring with me the lessons learned from other organisations, and apply what is proven to work and avoid what doesn’t.”
Managing Director, Peter Murphy, said of the latest appointment “I couldn’t be more chuffed that Liam has returned to lead operations. It validates our decision to keep investing in training and development of the next generation of engineers. Watching them leave can be frustrating, seeing them do well is somewhat satisfying, but getting them back is great.”
