My name’s Steve Baxter and I’m a plumbing tutor assessor here at ERR. I came into the plumbing industry at 15 years of age. I started out as a commercial pipefitters mate and then transferred over to an apprenticeship; when I was at the at the end of that I was 15. I did a four-year apprenticeship finished at 19, worked in the industry, mainly domestic plumbing. Through the 70s till the early 80s I become self-employed, I had my own business and I done that quite successfully.
Then latter years what I’ve tended to find is that as you wear out over the years with your knees and your back I was just looking for something like a roll, which is a bit easier on the body. So then I went to the teaching and started teaching at further education college, working with youngsters.
After a couple of years working with the youngsters, I come into working with adults, which is what I’m doing now at ERR.
What we try to do here is give them the skills to enable them to go into the industry and work alongside somebody to where they can actually then become better qualified and more experienced.
Most people after picking up enough experience do want to start their own business, go self-employed or even go self-employed in sub-contract with a main plumbing contractor.