Learners across the country might have seen Morgan Peel this past February, when he featured in a panel discussion livestream promoting apprenticeships. Broadcast from his employer Longcliffe Quarry in Matlock, Derbyshire, The Big Assembly provided schools, parents and students information about apprenticeships during National Apprenticeship Week (next year’s is 5-11 February).
Peel turned up wearing his workshop overalls, and offered advice from the point of view of a fully qualified technician, having received his Level 3 heavy goods vehicle repair technician apprenticeship papers in October 2022.
In the session (recording available via www.is.gd/mifole), he says: “You’ve got to be passionate about what you’re doing. You might be doing it for life, so the key thing is to enjoy what you do, and then progression comes naturally.”
After the event, Peel reveals that part of the motivation to participate in the session came from his own lack of knowledge as a young person; he says that he would have preferred to have known about apprenticeship options at school, rather than having to learn the hard way. In fact, his Level 3 award was the second apprenticeship Peel had completed, having already received a Level 2 award as a light goods vehicle technician when working for Derbyshire & Dales District Council.
He recalls why he decided to switch: “I was 19 then, and thought that there was more out there. The money is better on HGVs, and the responsibility is greater; the vehicles are on the road more. Moving was more of a personal goal than anything.”
However, having done it before, he did not enjoy the process of returning to the apprentice’s world. “The majority of the people on the course were all fresh out of school and very immature. It helped me to put my head down and focus on the job.”
He adds: “You had to prove yourself from day dot. There was no skipping. But if anything, it made me more keen to go through the process. It made me speed up work on the assignments and go through the job card – rather than them [the tutors] chasing you.”
It didn’t help that Peel wasn’t local; the nearest college offering an HGV Level 3 apprenticeship was in Stoke-on-Trent, an hour away by car.
Joining the workshop team at Longcliffe was equally hard at first, but Peel soon settled in. “It took a couple of weeks before I started to gel with the group and got to know others. Now I feel like I have got friends for life. There are only seven of us technicians. I know that if I’m struggling or need a hand with something, I can go to them.”
Having qualified, Peel says that the best thing about the job is the variety. “I don’t enjoy doing one particular thing day in and day out; that starts to get boring. Here, no day is the same. One day you’re dealing with a roadside breakdown; the next day a different fault comes to the door.”
More of a challenge is remaining competent. “The hardest thing is keeping up with the technology. We’re in an industry where things are changing all the time. OEMs are making the trucks more efficient (and more electronic). Nothing stays the same for long.”
The five-bay garage, which has four pits, services the quarry’s fleet of some 50 road-going tractors, trailers and eight-wheelers. The quarry was recently successfully audited by the IRTE under the Workshop Accreditation scheme, and as part of that Peel and his colleagues obtained irtec inspection technician accreditations.
Turning to his thoughts for the future, Peel says: “My ambition now is to get better at my job; not necessarily to be a supervisor. I just love what I am doing, and am trying to be the best.”