Meet the Member – Ian Hall

When Ian Hall left school in 1987 at the age of 16, his father encouraged him to pursue a career in plumbing and heating. Heeding his dad’s advice, he applied to take a Level 2 Craft Certificate at Bolton College.

“My dad’s friend was a plumber and he saw the value in working in a trade,” explains Ian. “My dad also encouraged my brother to learn a trade and he’s now an electrician. However, if I’m honest, when I applied, I was not fully conversant with the role and the wide range of activities plumbing and heating engineering covers.”

In the same year, Ian answered a newspaper advertisement for an apprentice plumber with the local housing department, Bolton Housing DLO (now Bolton at Home), which looked after 28,000 houses. He attended an aptitude test at Bolton Town Hall and was invited for a follow-up interview, which was successful.

“I began my apprenticeship on a YTS (Youth Training Scheme) and was then signed up as an indentured apprentice,” says Ian. “Before starting, the 12 new apprentices were taken on an outdoor adventure retreat for a week of team bonding. It was a fantastic experience, which included gorge walking, abseiling and kayaking. I was extremely fortunate to gain an apprenticeship with an employer that really cared about its young trainees.”

Laying the foundations

Ian worked on a variety of projects during his time with Bolton at Home.

“I was lucky to be trained by some wonderful people, covering a range of plumbing and heating skills,” he says. “Some, alas, are no longer in the course – sheet lead weathering and glazing, for example. All of this was covered in the workplace as we were responsible for the maintenance of domestic homes as well as schools and public buildings in the borough of Bolton.”

Ian covered day-to-day property repair and maintenance (emergencies); installation of bathrooms, kitchens and heating systems; glazing; working on above- and below-ground drainage, and servicing of heating systems, in addition to installing oil, gas and renewable technologies.

“The apprentices built new bungalows from start to finish, with guidance and support from the apprentice master who oversaw all the jobs that we worked on, including refurbishing a number of properties in the borough,” explains Ian.

Change of direction

After almost two decades in a variety of roles at Bolton at Home, including plumber, gas engineer and installation engineer, in 2006 Ian left for a teaching position at Tameside College in Ashton-under-Lyne. He taught apprentices and full-time students working towards the Level 2 technical certificate in plumbing, Level 2 NVQ and Level 3 NVQ with gas and renewable pathways.

“The Level 2 course covered basic plumbing studies, practical and theory,” explains Ian. “Safety, scientific principles, common plumbing processes, cold and hot water, and heating in theory, in addition to a range of practical plumbing tasks in the workshop.

“The NVQ was taught along the same lines, but was also assessed in the workplace as the candidates completed their portfolio covering a range of installs across different systems.”

During his seven years at the college, Ian became an assessor, internal quality assurance (IQA) and resource developer.

In 2013, Ian secured a position as a senior tutor at Manchester College covering similar duties. However, having recently set up a centre at Tameside that focused on low-carbon technologies, he was keen to give college students who did not have access to gas work the chance to build their renewables knowledge and skills to complete their Level 3 NVQ.

Ian was deputy head of the construction department at Wigan and Leigh College, and even went back to Tameside for three years, between 2018-2021, before finally returning to Bolton College, where it all started.

“It was a very special moment,” he says. “I had come full circle from a 16-year-old apprentice learning my trade at Bolton at Home and Bolton College to returning as a 50-plus-year-old tutor to educate and train apprentices in my home town. My role was to help close the region’s skills gap by giving everyone who came through the door the chance to be employable, retain their skills and upskill to new technologies that meet the green agenda, locally and nationally.”

Positive experience

Ian recently became a member of the CIPHE as an individual, but all of his employers were CIPHE approved.

“I became a member because of the prestige of the organisation,” explains Ian. “Its history, heritage and the help and assistance it offers its members, as well as the resources available to stimulate tutors like me to assist in my delivery, is invaluable. The training academy is second to none, as are the CPD opportunities on offer.”

With a career spanning decades, Ian has nothing but praise for the plumbing and heating industry as a career choice.

“I tell anyone who’s interested in becoming a plumber that it’s the best career to get into,” he enthuses. “I’ve been in the industry since 1987 and I’ve never been unemployed. I am so thankful to my dad who started me on this path all those years ago. I have never looked back.”

IAN'S ACHIEVEMENTS

• Apprentice of the Year Bolton at Home
• Plumbing Craft Certificate & Advanced Craft Certificate Bolton College
• Innovation Award for the introduction of digital teaching methods: Tameside College
• Individual Award for development of new course material and courses that meet the need of the sector (LCHT): Bolton College
• Contributor to HIP Magazine covering all aspects of plumbing and heating themes
• Developing new resources that meet the low-carbon heating technician standard and leading the way regionally and nationally for this new standard
• Working with the trailblazer group and MCS to meet the deadline for the rollout of the apprenticeship
• Development of the aptitude test that Bolton at Home used in its apprenticeship recruitment for building services
• Development of free resources via the website, halledu.co.uk, which is used by students up and down the country