Maersk Training Story: Carload of Hopes

August 28, 2014

When you believe in something, how far would you go to sustain that belief?

Maersk Training has released a story about three men making every effort to grab one of the opportunities that the renewable energy industry offers.

At 27 Jonny Chung has already put his money where his mouth is. In the past he’d gained a sports science degree, travelled the world for his father’s plastic recycling firm, been an accidents claims manager and even started a fast food business with an Indian curry van – that venture only ending because of the unreliability of his business partner. Add to that skills as a painter and blaster and a ropes ticket and you have one very busy young man. But now he has got wind of the big one.

Jonny is so convinced that the future is in renewable energy that he sold his car to be able to survive the twelve weeks it will take him to gain the level two diploma which will launch his latest career.

More than 400 other people thought the same and turned up at a South Shields’ council building to queue to get inside and see what Maersk Training had on offer. Of those standing in line, about 10% would pass the rigorous questionnaire and later tests which included both the physical and mental kind. Jonny was one of the chosen, as was Michael Weightman, who joined the course after a spell of twelve years in jail, as a prison officer, and Shane Taylor, a former merchant seaman who saw this opportunity to the offshore job he’d always wanted.

What is the Level 2 Diploma?

The twelve week course they are on has the embracing title, Level 2 Diploma Staying Safe in the Wind Turbine Environment (Onshore and Offshore) and is itself very embracing and, with a view to reality, it even includes instruction in that final hurdle, preparing a CV and performance at the interview. The course is split into twelve sections and doesn’t stop at the end of the day, there being preparation and homework.

Understanding the need to be physically fit Shane had just returned from the gym when we first spoke, Michael was writing an essay intro into electrics and electronics and Jonny was driving home in his new car.

‘I’d paid my old car off, so I sold it and have now bought this one on a loan, ‘he said on his hands-free, ‘I need the money to survive and to carry on with blade inspection and spot repair courses. I then have to hope that a job comes up.’

‘It is a risk I want to take, a career I want to take,’ he added.

Michael too sees it as the future. He’d been preparing for the day the prison gates would be behind him by going to college for two years to qualify as an electrician. Although only 33 he felt the need for a new career to take him to retirement and renewable energy was the perfect one.

At 37, Shane is the senior of the trio and apart from his time with the merchant navy as an able-bodied seaman, he’d spent time a heights becoming a technician and had taken a rope access course, ‘so I’ve no worries about being up there, in fact I really love heights,’ he says.

What worries him a little is the essays and even more so the presentation – ‘but it is all about getting you ready for that job interview – it’s so far been very, very thorough, there’s nothing they haven’t thought of.’

We caught up with the trio on week three of the course and will be with them again at the end.