Direct Air’s Trainee Engineer thriving through the...

Direct Air’s Trainee Engineer thriving through the...

Direct Air’s Trainee Engineer thriving through the...

It’s day 4 of National Apprenticeship Week 2024 and today we’ll be discussing progress with Adam. We spoke to Adam one year ago when he had just joined Direct Air and enrolled onto his apprenticeship in the ‘Meet Direct Air’s newest Compressed Air Engineering Apprentice‘ blog. Since then he’s been developing significantly, not just in his apprenticeship course work, but through other training courses too.

About Adam

Adam joined Direct Air in January of 2023 as an Engineering Apprentice and he’s now one year into his apprenticeship. We wanted to chat with Adam again to see how his responsibilities, knowledge and experience have advanced since last year’s National Apprenticeship Week.

What new responsibilities have you taken on within the last year?

One of the biggest changes over the last year for me has been the independence I’ve been able to have. Using the skills I’ve learnt from shadowing the experienced Direct Air engineers and knowledge from college work I am now able to get stuck in and carry out jobs myself.

When I first started at Direct Air I was assisting the Installation Engineers regularly, but recently I’ve been more focused on Servicing which I think suits my skills and abilities really well. Along with the service work I’ve been carrying out, I’ve also attended break downs at sites to investigate what the issue is with the compressed air systems in order to get a quicker response time for customers and get the problem resolved as soon as possible.

Despite this increase in independence, I am still very early on in my apprenticeship, meaning I continue to go to senior engineering colleagues at work for reassurance when I’m faced with challenges I haven’t come across before. Knowing I have a helpful team around me provides me with even more confidence to explore more capabilities.

Can you talk us through the training courses you have completed?

Over the past year I’m proud to have completed a range of courses including:

  • BOGE compressors manufacturer course
  • F-Gas refrigerant dryers course
  • Beko Technologies manufacturer course
  • Parker Hannifin compressed air treatment and industrial gas nitrogen generation systems course

The skills I have gathered from completing these courses combined has allowed me to learn more specific knowledge about the actual compressed air equipment on top of the general engineering knowledge that my apprenticeship work is giving me. It was also great for the courses to be lead by the brands that Direct Air distributes, as this meant I was being taught first hand about the compressed air equipment I am used to working on at customer sites everyday!

Will you be enrolling onto anymore courses?

After doing the above courses I now understand how vital they are to my development. Therefore, I will be continuing to complete more courses in the near future. Some that I am currently signed up for consist of:

  • MGTS college Electrical Maintenance course
  • CompAir L-Series compressor range course

I think that doing these courses alongside my apprenticeship and on-site work will ensure I’m progressing at a significant pace.

Are you enjoying your job role and what are you most looking forward to after your apprenticeship is complete?

One of the main things I am enjoying about my role at the moment is being able to go out and use my knowledge to solve problems for Direct Air’s customers where I can. When I finish a job and the customer is happy with the results it’s really satisfying and rewarding.

Once I have successfully completed my apprenticeship I am looking forward to focusing more on my time at work and putting every bit of the knowledge I’ve learnt on the way to use.

Although I’m excited to be working full time, I also want to secure my Compressed Air and Vacuum Technician NVQ and continuing my education through other courses after my apprenticeship is still something I will be doing as I think it is vital.

Do you feel like the apprenticeship, alongside working on the job, is providing you with skills for life?

Some of the key skills for life that this working journey is providing me with are Communication skills with both internal and external stakeholders, as I am conversing with fellow engineers, Direct Air office staff and customers on a daily basis.

Also, my problem solving abilities have been enhanced in a whole new way. I think is such a valuable skill to have in engineering and it’s something that I will be able to develop with each year of experience that I gain working in the compressed air industry.

Finally, I think I have learnt how to efficiently cope with working and learning a qualification at the same time by established a good balance. Doing this means I don’t get behind on my college work whilst also maintaining good value to the company with my working hours.