Here goes nothing …. Our first official BLOG post!!!
So who are we, what do we do and how did we get here? Well, Simon Robinson is the brains of the operation (or so he has us believe anyway) and has aspired to open either a Motorbike shop or a Training Centre since his British Gas days. As these aspirations have grown and I (Andrea) have zero experience with Motorbikes, other than hanging on to the back for dear life, it became clear that the best route for our family/team to take would be the training journey.
Simon and Stephen are the technical experts at the Centre sharing an outstanding range of skills, abilities, experience and knowledge of all heating disciplines and education. I am here to utilise my extensive training and teaching background, knowledge, huge variety of skills (some of which are incredibly random) and super-efficiency (it would be my super-power) to pretty much be everything else from cleaner, hunter and gatherer to website designer, accountant (yuck by the way), logistical coordinator, marketing (thank you Nicola @Wearesparkle), curriculum and business development (thank you Vicky @kier).
So far, since we first rented our workspace in July 2015, we* have completely refit the empty shell of the building to create a bespoke space for the training of Domestic and Commercial Gas, Oil, Solid Fuel, Biomass and Chimney Sweep courses. More courses are coming online as word gets out that we are here – Air Source, Solar, Electrical are en route.
* When I say ‘we’ I really mean Simon, Stephen and many family and friends.
Simon and Stephen have worked tirelessly to make the Centre amazing and have further built on existing relationships in order to provide the best equipment in our training and assessment areas. We are working with: Euroheat, Strebel, Scheidel, Adey, Intergas, Vaillant, Freedom Green Energy, Aico, Tracpipe, Gerberit and Hilti to name but a few (let me know if I’ve missed you out). We are continuing to bring other manufacturers and partners on board on a daily basis.
We are Logic, Napit and Oftec accredited and had our first clients through the Centre in April. We have ran all of our courses since then and are at a point where we want to invite everyone here to show off just how hard we have worked and how good our Centre is.
Right now, we are running the OFT10 – Oil combined course, gearing up for our OFFICIAL LAUNCH next Tuesday (1st November 3pm-7pm), changing our accounts system over to cope with expansion into product distribution, promoting our upcoming courses and have held our first free Gas Get Together evening and Biomass Awareness event.
Our focus is to continue the momentum, to spread the word and to show everyone what an amazing facility and support network we have created – and which we hope will continue to grow.
Feel free to call in any time you are in the area for a chat, cuppa, mooch around or warm your bum on the fire 😉
Thanks
Andrea