āItās About Future-Proofing Myselfā: Double-NVQ Simon Flies High (And So Do His Tomatoes)
Wigan-based joiner, supervisor and future-proofer, Simon Watson, is one of many learners to successfully achieve two qualifications with us at DMR (he advanced from NVQ Level 2 in Joinery to NVQ Level 3 in Supervision). A family man and keen gardener, we asked Simon to tell us his story in his own words ā including his reasons for doing two NVQs, and why his tomatoes flew away with his greenhouse.
Iāve been a joiner since I left school, twenty-five years ago. I always knew I wanted to work with my hands but I’m a bit of a non-conformist and all my family are engineers; they work with metal. I had to buck the trend. I chose joinery because itās the opposite of metalwork!
After leaving school, I joined a shopfitting firm, and went to college on day-release for three years while doing my apprenticeship. I kept turning up at college each day, but it seems I slipped through the net because thereās no record of me achieving my apprenticeship. I only discovered this years later when applying for my CSCS card.
Iām now a self-employed shopfitter and I subcontract to a few firms in the Wigan and St Helens area who do shop-fits and office fit-outs, and bespoke joinery. I fit out offices and schools, predominantly.
I’ve not really needed a CSCS card until I relocated to Wigan, eight or nine years ago. I carried a green laborerās card but it was due to expire, and it wasnāt the skills card that I needed. I thought, āI need to do this now and get my NVQā. So, I took the initiative to future-proof myself and get my qualification and paperwork sorted.
I learned from somebody on site that you could do your NVQ in the workplace. I typed āNVQ training in Wiganā into Google and DMR was the first one to come up. After speaking to her on the phone, Jody [DMR manager] came out to see me a few days later.
I did the NVQ Level 2 in Joinery first in 2022, and then Jodie phoned me up the following year asking if I was interested in doing my NVQ Level 3 in Occupational Work Supervision.
Ian, my NVQ assessor, was great ā a really fantastic guy. The first time we met, he came to my house, went through everything about the NVQ and gave me a plan and question pack. It was like an induction at the beginning of the course to get me going.
As well as face-to-face meetings, we also had telephone conversations and communicated by WhatsApp. Ian checked regularly to find out how I was getting on, and whether I needed support or help with the NVQ.
I’ve done other qualifications in the past ā PASMA, IPAF, Asbestos Awareness, SSSTS ā but I was slightly apprehensive about doing a bigger qualification like an NVQ. The other courses Iāve done have only been one, two or three-day courses in an office or classroom. I generally struggle to retain a lot of information that’s given to me quickly and I need time to digest and absorb it. But once itās settled, Iāll retain it and it stays there forever.
Iām not saying weāre not clever. But for some of us, thereās a reason weāre working with our hands in the building trade. We don’t particularly like dealing with massive words and complex sentences. The NVQ knowledge questions took a while to get my head around because it didnāt feel like theyād been written in a way that was easy to understand. Ian was very helpful and supportive, and once Iād figured them out, I was well on my way. It was hard work at times but definitely worth it.
Ian arranged to visit me at work to carry out a professional discussion and observation. It was while I was working on a fit-out job in a special needs school for disabled students.
We were altering three rooms – a bathroom, a storeroom and a classroom ā and knocking the walls down to make one big room so the school could install a hoist system which would let the students walk around in support harnesses, giving them a form of independent mobility.
Just before Ian arrived, there was an issue with one of the bathrooms and they couldn’t allow the students in for safety reasons. I had to cordon off the bathroom, put a new door on it and secure it. I called Ian on the phone just as he was pulling up the car park to tell him Iād had an emergency job dropped on me at short notice and couldnāt see him at the agreed time. He said, ādonāt worry; it’s fine. Iāll wait as long as it takesā. Other people I know might have been miffed or upset but Ian was absolutely sound.
The firms I subcontract to ā theyāre not small, but theyāre not massive firms, either. They have a few small sites dotted here, there and everywhere. Now that I have my Level 3 NVQ, I can work as a site foreman and induct people.Ā
Iām not a site manager yet ā we have a contracts manager above me. But there are jobs that donāt require a full-time site manager, and I can now help run the site with the contracts manager. Everything seems to be flowing smoothly so far.
Over time, I want to work fewer hours on the tools. I’d like to go into site management, and I am setting my sights on a managerās qualification so I can keep going up. My plan over the next five or six years is to reduce the hours I spend on the tools: I want to keep working in my trade, but I also want to supervise and manage sites. There are a few lads in my game who are absolutely knackered and they’re only in their fifties! I don’t want to end up like that. Itās about future-proofing myself, having all the qualifications, and being ready, qualified and capable of doing what I need to do to give myself a physically less-demanding life later on.
Away from the building game, I like to spend as much time as I can with my wife and kids. I’ve got six children – five girls and one boy.
I like my gardening. With spring finally arriving, Iāve got a lot of bulbs at the minute. I’ve got tulips, dills, crocuses, honeysuckle, and a weeping willow tree in my front garden, and lots of creeping phlox in my rockery. In my back garden I’ve got wild jasmine and a white rose bush.
I tried growing vegetables, and it wasn’t a great success. I had a greenhouse that blew away in the storm a couple of years ago and took my tomatoes with it. And I’d also planted some leaks that turned out to be spring onions! The only thing that has taken is a red berry plant. I’ve had no fruit off it, but it still grows every year.
Over the Easter weekend, Iāll plant some bedding plants, mow the lawn, clean the decking, and trim the trees and bushes back. Everything is coming back to life now and Iāll be out in the garden every other day during spring and summer.
Simon achieved his NVQ Level 2 in Joinery and NVQ Level 3 in Occupational Work Supervision through skills funding provided by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Adult Education Budget. This interview is based on a telephone conversation that took place on Wednesday 27th March, 2024.
To learn more about flexible onsite NVQ assessment with DMR Training and to check your eligibility for skills funding, contact us on 01942 673047 or get in touch with us through our contact page.