Stotfold man shows you are never too old to stop learning

A Stotfold man, who changed career in his 50s is backing Learning at Work Week this week.
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Kyriacos Gonis is on the Engineer Development Programme run by UK Power Networks.

The two-and-a-half year training programme enables people who already have an electrical background to become fully qualified engineers. The recruits complete work placements and are paid during their training, which is a mix of classroom-based and practical sessions, mostly held at the company’s training centres.

Kyriacos, aged 55, worked at the BBC for 33 years, starting as a trainee electrical, electronic broadcast engineer, and working his way up into management.

“When I left the BBC I diversified, teaching electrical installation courses at a local college while running my own contracting business for commercial, industrial and domestic electrical systems,” he said:

“I missed the culture of working for a large organisation, noticed UK Power Networks was looking for trainee engineers and did my research. It is an organisation which is a close fit to the BBC way of working and I’m finding the training remarkably similar to the BBC.

“I wanted to reconnect with that sense of belonging to an organisation and was really excited to get the job. Although I was doing well on my own I felt isolated at times and missed that connection to an organisation that provides an important public service.

“I will be working to become a Senior Authorised Person. It will involve a lot of learning and I will be following a structured training programme. Working in industry, you realise how important and resilient UK Power Networks’ system is in keeping the lights on. It’s an essential service.

“I’m really interested in the company’s environmental role and to see how UK Power Networks evolves as a green business. One of my ambitions is to work on innovations.”

>Learning at Work Week www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk

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