Meet the member: David Bunce

David Bunce began his career in 1984 at the age of 16 when he enlisted into the Army’s parachute regiment. After six years serving Queen and country, he met his future wife, Rachel. With military life no longer suiting his lifestyle, David changed careers and went into the Manchester police force, starting out as a police constable, and moved through the ranks to become a detective constable, and a specialist in child and adult protection. After 30 years of service, he retired in 2018 at the age of 50.

“I wanted to do something radically different,” recalls David. “Something with a purity and honesty. Something that felt normal. I wanted to work with people and do something of benefit.”

Perfect fit

David worked in care home maintenance for seven months, gaining experience of working in a range of trades to get a feel for which career path to take, and finally settled on becoming a plumbing and heating engineer.

The year he retired, David began a night course studying towards a BPEC Level 1 Plumbing certification at Warrington College. It was then that he decided to become a trainee member of the CIPHE.

“I fell in love with heating and plumbing engineering and really enjoyed the more technical aspect of it,” explains David. “The CIPHE offers a lot of services and for me the CPD and ethos of continual improvement was a great attraction, as was the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals.”

David put in 12 unsuccessful apprenticeship applications before he was finally accepted by Seddon Construction Limited, where he began working in the mechanical and engineering services division, at the age of 51.

“It was difficult to understand why I wasn’t successful,” admits David. “However, Seddon is an inclusive business, with a diverse employee base, and the selection system was a lot more person-based. I think a more mature person trying to get into the heating and plumbing industry is viewed as following a bit of a whim. I think the perception is that you are almost too old in terms of the physicality and longevity of the job, which is so not the case. I have so much to offer.

“There are an awful lot of mature people who have transferable skills to bring to the construction industry, a real source of life skills which could fill the skills gap.”

David spends one day a week in college and four days on site during college time, with an expectation to carry out eight to 10 hours of self-directed study in his own time. His apprenticeship is due to finish in the spring of 2024.

“I have worked on a number of sites, including high profile jobs such as Harper and Keele Veterinary School, working on either wet or dry labs, which was really interesting,” says David. “I also worked on the Sue Ryder project, a specialist neurological centre, which was being built to help people with neurological injuries, as well as new-build projects.”

Renewables

“I will be dealing with and installing renewable technology, so I will be taking part in the CIPHE Low Temperature Heating and Hot Water Design course in the summer of 2023,” says David. “Sustainable technology is a very complex subject that isn’t as linear as people think. There needs to be a cohesive approach across business, the private and public sectors and government to be rolled out effectively. It is the future because we will run out of fossil fuels and carbon. Demand on energy resources will be at the forefront of government agendas so anything we can do to mitigate demand on fossil fuels has got to be a good thing. It’s important that members of the industry look forward and are prepared to change their previous working methods and embrace the new technology.”

Looking back on his career, David counts himself lucky that he was able to change direction later in life: “I’d encourage anyone who wants a career change to look into construction. Don’t be put off with the advertised salary, it can always be negotiated, especially if you come with transferrable skills.

“People need to challenge the perceptions of what an apprentice is and just go for it if they can,” enthuses David. “The main issue for apprentices is the wage, but adults entering apprenticeships will potentially receive a minimum wage (£9.50 per hour) from the start.

“It’s so easy to stay in your comfort zone and find that you are not growing as a person. It’s sometimes a challenge seeing my peers doing well in other career paths, but there is an honesty in doing a job well. If you ask any of the lads and lasses in the industry they’ll agree that if you do good work it’s a great feeling.”