High-flying trainees at Terminal 5

The first five trainees to make the grade on an adult-based training scheme at Heathrow Terminal 5 were overjoyed to receive their Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (ECS) gold cards in a recent presentation at Heathrow’s Radisson Hotel.

The educational project is a collaboration between BAA, Amec Building and Facilities Services and Crown House Technologies, along with training provider JTL.

Robert James of the Amec guidance team stressed the need to attract older trainees, but stated that a lack of funding presents a serious obstacle. “It’s impossible to get funding for adults,” he explained. “There’s some available up to the age of 24, but it’s hard after that.”

Florin Qinami, Jarinder Singh Mann, Lee Rackley, Jon Kenny and Dritan Karati, who are aged between 20 and 36, joined the pilot scheme in January 2005. They are now fully qualified electricians.

Qinami, who moved to the UK from Kosovo when he was 14, said: “T5 and JTL have been very helpful. I’ve waited a long time for this, though instead of taking four or five years it took just three and a half with Amec. They gave me a lot of time off work to go and study at college.”

Sir Michael Latham, chair of the Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry (JIB), welcomed union backing for the project: “We are delighted that Amicus has offered full support. The ECS Gold Card is not easy to achieve. It’s vital to have the co-operation of the existing labour force.”

Andrew Wolstenholme, BAA T5 project director, said: “We have worked with our project partners, training providers and the industry to ensure that T5 is utilised as a vehicle to develop a variety of training and educational schemes for different age groups. Achieving a nationally recognised qualification later in life is often harder to do and my congratulations go out to all five graduates. I would encourage other major projects to undertake similar schemes.”