Colin Baynham, Electrical Services Section Engineer
Colin finished his apprenticeship in 1995 and has been a busy and successful engineer ever since. Here is his story.
High voltage career!
In my final year at Queen Elizabeth School, I was undecided about which career path to take. I met with the Careers Adviser and decided I wanted an apprenticeship in engineering. I applied for a number of jobs and received numerous offers but decided I wanted an apprenticeship with British Steel (now called Corus) as they had the best training package. I could also train in both electrical and mechanical engineering.
During my four year apprenticeship I received on the job training in various departments at Corby and gained an ONC in Electrical Engineering through study at college. I also enrolled on internal electronics courses to become a stage 3 electrician and started a day release HNC course Mechatronics.
After finishing my apprenticeship in September 1995, I was offered a job as a Multiskilled Shift Electrician. I continued to attend my day release courses throughout the following years and gained a HNC, HND and Bachelor of Science with a Mechatronics Degree from De Montfort University in June 1999.
Since then I have had a number of different jobs. In 1998 I was a Project Engineer with the challenging role of looking at ways of improving plant performance. In 1999, I was promoted to Electrical Charge hand and in 2002 I worked on various projects and gained knowledge of the works high voltage network. I attended a High Voltage Switching Course at Nottingham Power Station where I learned all the rules and regulations for switching around a high voltage network. On completion I was classed as a “Senior Authorised Person” to switch voltages up to 33kV on the Corby site.
In 2003 I was appointed as Shift Electrical Engineer. I have been working a shift pattern with four other Shift Electrical Engineers to ensure that a safe, reliable and efficient supply of engineering services such as water, gas, compressed air and electricity are maintained 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The job also involves many other responsibilities including advice on plant performance across the site and production of electricity forecasts for the electricity supplier.
I was promoted to Electrical Services Section Engineer in March 2006 and am due to be released to carry out my new role.
