Open Days
Richard Pollard

Brookhouse equip you with all the information you need to make an informed decision and then leave you alone to make that decision without any pressure at all.

Previously Army Officer

Richard Pollard

The Problem

For the past eight years Richard had been self-employed working as a website design and IT consultant but with the recession work was progressively becoming harder to find. Richard decided that he needed to find a change of direction and after seeing a friend’s boiler breakdown he soon realised that there was a good deal of opportunity in plumbing. As Richard began to research plumbing as an alternative career he quickly learned being a plumber is very different from being a gas engineer.

“There was a lot of misinformation out there and one thing I was not told was that plumbing courses would not enable me to become a gas engineer, which is what I ultimately decided to do. Through the Careers Advice Service I was told that Brookhouse Training Centre offer both types of training.”

The Solution

When Richard was invited to Brookhouse to look round the training centre and meet the trainers he discovered, he would need a work placement and ACS accreditation to qualify as a registered gas engineer and as Richard says:

“I am really glad I found that out when I did as I could potentially have wasted a lot of money being trained by another provider. Unless you have the work placement you cannot work in the gas industry and get your ACS. Brookhouse is on my doorstep but I would happily have travelled much further afield to do my training with them.”

My training has been brilliant and it has really hit home to me that this needs to be hands on and face to face. Everyone on my course agrees that the classroom and practical combination is the only way to successfully achieve our training - you cannot learn to solder pipes by watching a CD or reading a book!