We catch up with how Marie Barrett’s training course at Sterling Assessment Centre is going.
Hi Marie, what have you been up to this month then?
Since my last update we have covered:
*Controls
*Gas Emergency Actions & Procedures
*Re-establish Gas supplies
*Labels and Notices
*Legislation
*Flues
We are now going over the syllabus again with, hopefully, a better understanding now we’ve had a chance to put our knowledge into real experience.
We have now completed three assessments:
1 Customer & Real Work Environment Essentials
2 Tightness Testing & Purging
3 Pipework
How are you finding balancing studying with working on the job?
The course has the right balance of training and knowledge through PowerPoint presentations, discussions and practical experience in the workshop and, of course, with our mentors.
It is a juggling act finding time to study, work on site and record all our evidence. I think we are all experiencing some difficulties getting our mentors to help fill in the evidence records, as they are so busy.
How are the rest of your coursemates finding it? Are there any particular topics you’ve all had to spend more time on, and if so, why do you think this is?
My coursemates are great! After last week’s assessment, which was very tough, it was evident that although we all passed, we still had a long journey ahead!
So far, we have not had to spend more time on any particular subject that we may be struggling with, but we may have to later on in the course, as we will be targeting more on the ACS exams and we may find it more difficult leading up to that.
Saying that, we have had to go over pipe sizing in depth as there are a lot of calculations to consider.
According to our trainer, we are where we should be at this stage of the course – the only thing we may be struggling with is covering the criteria with varying types of work.
You’ve been training for a few months now. Is there any advice you’d give to those about to start or thinking of starting the course?
If I was to give advice to anyone wishing to start the MLP course, it would be to try and get as much experience as they can working alongside a qualified engineer before they start. It’s certainly helped me!
