HPP Maintenance Engineer Ellis Smith is celebrating the successful completion of his Level 3 Maintenance and Operations Engineering Technician - Electromechanical Technician qualification, achieving a Merit in his End-point Assessment.
Having been part of the HPP team for around 13 years, Ellis has spent the last three and a half years developing his career in engineering, maintaining the machinery and equipment that keeps the site running.
Ellis moved into engineering after realising that an office-based role wasn't the right fit for him. As someone who enjoys practical, hands-on work, an Engineering Apprenticeship at HPP offered the opportunity to pursue a career that suited his interests.
"I'm quite a hands-on person, so I thought this job role would suit me," Ellis explained. "I do quite a lot of my own work at home, so I thought it fitted my personality and what sort of things I'm into anyway."
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As part of his qualification, Ellis attended college one day a week, developing skills across mechanical fitting, electrical engineering and equipment maintenance. He was then able to put that learning into practice on site, working alongside experienced engineers.
For Ellis, the practical experience has been one of the most valuable aspects of his development.
"The most valuable thing that I've developed is just time spent on the machines and getting through different problems and trying to figure things out as to why certain machines have come into a fault or broken down," he said.
The knowledge and experience gained during the apprenticeship have also enabled Ellis to work much more independently, diagnosing faults and dealing with machine breakdowns with greater confidence.
Completing the qualification was a significant milestone, particularly while balancing work, study and family life.
"After three years of constant learning and hard work, it's quite a relief to actually get to the end of it now," Ellis said. "It's just a weight off your shoulders, really."
However, Ellis sees the qualification as the start of his development rather than the end. He hopes to continue gaining experience in his current role before potentially progressing to HNC level.
His advice to anyone considering an apprenticeship is simple: work hard, stay motivated and never stop learning.
"Even when you pass the course, you've still got more to learn afterwards," he said. "You've got to be prepared to want to keep learning throughout the career."
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For Ellis, that ongoing learning is one of the things he enjoys most about engineering, where every day brings new challenges, problems to solve and opportunities to develop.
Looking back, his advice to his younger self would be much the same: stay positive, keep learning and work hard.
"You've just got to be positive and keep trying to learn and improve yourself and just work hard."