Gas Apprentices Qualify

A new career is in the pipeline for six apprentices who have graduated from a gas apprenticeship programme.

Ryan Ellis, from Hull, Ian Coates and Martyn Glendenning from Bishop Auckland, Ryan Moorby from Pottery Fields Leeds and Dave MacDonald and Philip Ingram from Hendon, work for Northern Gas Networks which operates the region’s 37,000km network of gas mains and employs around 1,100 staff in the gas network at depots throughout Yorkshire, Cumbria and the North East.

The six have all completed individual courses appropriate to their network specialisation and during the apprenticeship period, practical work was supplemented with classroom theory leading to either NVQ level 3 in gas network engineering or an HNC.

Graduated Apprentice Ryan, who will be based at the company’s Pottery Fields depot, is looking forward to joining his team mates out on the patch.

"The apprenticeship has been a fantastic experience,” he said. "I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity and I’m really looking forward to an exciting and busy career with Northern Gas Networks.”

Indeed, Ryan and his colleagues will be very busy as Northern Gas Networks replace around 550km of gas mains every year, pipe gas to 2.6 million homes and businesses and runs the gas emergency service, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Network Operations Director, John Suddes, who also started his gas career as an apprentice was delighted with the progress the graduates had made. "It’s a very big responsibility working for the first time without direct supervision, but the apprentices have been well trained and know that help is always available twenty four hours a day,” he said. "They are going forward with a healthy workload, with an excellent team alongside them, working in a good, safe manner. I wish them well, after all the hard work they have put in, they deserve it.”