Success story

As part of this week’s 13th annual National Apprenticeship Week we’re celebrating the contribution our apprentices make to Royal Mail and our future.

Today, we hear from Ian Creighton, who recently started his role of plant engineering manager for Nottingham and Sheffield.

Ian’s new role sees him overseeing the engineering departments at both mail centres, driving the maintenance and performance of the mail sorting automation.

‘I’m responsible for maintaining safety standards and legal compliance for both sites,’ he said. ‘I oversee both the staff and non-staff budgets and I collaborate with other senior management within the mail centres to drive efficiency and productivity.’

Ian was initially an apprentice on the Advanced Engineering apprenticeship, which included an eight-month period of staying away and studying at an engineering training centre in Blackburn. He then joined the engineering team at Nottingham to continue his qualifications by compiling a portfolio for his Level 3 NVQ.

‘I’m now studying as part of the Engineering Development Programme (EDP) to gain my HNC and NVQ Level 4 in Advanced Engineering Operations,’ he said. ‘The programme has been really positive so far as there have been additional elements added to the schedule to supplement my development. For example, the engineers on the EDP have been enrolled in the graduate manager development training and I’ve found this particularly helpful having recently moved into a management position.

‘The EDP requires a considerable amount of commitment due to the amount of work alongside my full-time job, so I’ve found it vital to manage my time effectively and break the work down into manageable sections. There’s a lot of time spent away from home, so that’s a big commitment for a personal perspective. Deadlines need to be met in a timely manner, which means some work needs to be done out of hours. Luckily, support from tutors, mentors and other apprentices makes this manageable.’

Since starting with Royal Mail, Ian has been able to apply the training he has been given in a number of ways. ‘With the initial apprenticeship engineering qualifications, I became a valuable member of the engineering team at Nottingham working on a shift rotation,’ he said. ‘This included maintaining the automation during maintenance windows and reactive maintenance and fault finding during periods where the operation was processing mail.

‘I was able to grow my knowledge of the automation and progress quickly, this gave me the confidence to apply for the role of engineering team coach (ETC) just eight months after qualifying. I was the early shift ETC for just over two-and-a-half years, in which time I built good working relationships with a large network of people.

‘I’m very proud of the progression I have made within Royal Mail in a relatively short period of time. Starting with no engineering background six-and-a-half years ago to now, where I manage the engineering departments in two mail centres.’