BCW invites Royal Navy Leading Weapons Engineer for Civilian Work Placement

Being a Bronze Award holder has given us the opportunity to work with the Armed Forces providing help to support and invest in the Service Leavers, Veterans, the Wounded, Ill and Sick, and Cadets Leaders.

This week BCW welcomed Adam Matthews, Royal Navy Leading Engineer to site to work alongside our HSE Team.  The work placement came to fruition following a Veteran’s Webinar hosted by IOSH President Elect, James Quinn, of Multiplex.  Adam was in attendance and approached our Armed Forces Champion, Ashley St John Claire after he was in a position to offer a Civilian Work Placement.  Adam was keen to get involved and the Royal Navy released him as part of his military transition period. 

This placement allows Adam to be amongst a fast paced and expanding business, gaining on the job experience by getting involved in the day to day, LOLER inspections, Insurance Compliance visits and assisting John Cox, EHS Officer with continuous improvement measures.   This is a great opportunity to add value to our projects and give Adam a real-life case study which he can use during his search for employment.  As part of our ISO and IATF16949 requirements, we are continually improving our processes and Adam will conduct gap analyses across the site.

Adam Joined the Royal Navy in 2006 as a weapons engineer where he served on five Royal Navy Destroyers, with three separate deployments on the new T45 Daring class. During his time on the T45 Daring class ships he was the Navigation maintainer responsible for three navigational Radars, Degaussing system and the Meteorological system. 

Ashley St John Claire commented, Adam has been a useful member of the HSE team here at BCW since day 1. His life experience, passion for keeping people safe and enthusiasm to learn on the job is commendable, both as a reflection on his Military training and his personal high standards. He shares a number of the same values and beliefs around developing a safer culture through modelling behaviours, and our approach to mentoring both management and staff to think about safety in everything we do. I am confident that he will make an excellent QSHE Manager for the Midlands companies that he will be targeting, and will stay in touch through our shared IOSH Network and NCRQ connections.

We caught up with Adam during his first week and he said, “Having the opportunity for this real life civilian work placement has been really beneficial whilst studying the NCRQ Level 6 Diploma in Applied Health and Safety.  Having the chance to use my Naval engineering experience, in a civilian engineering company has made me realise that I have a lot to offer, and a lot more still to learn about Health and Safety in the workplace.  The support from fellow veterans in the HSE team has been fantastic, and the chance to make observations and improvements and practical applications using my knowledge has been a really positive experience for me.  Thanks ever so much for the opportunity and I would recommend a CWP with BCW Engineering to any of my peers leaving the Armed Forces.

For more information on the Armed Forces Covenant: https://www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk/

You can get more information about the Employee Recognition Scheme here : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defence-employer-recognition-scheme/defence-employer-recognition-scheme