A young apprentice at Stelrad Radiators made it to the last three in the HVAC ‘Oscars’ – The H&V News Awards – attending the awards presentation night in a top London hotel last week. Stelrad’s Head of Marketing, UK & Ireland, Chris Harvey says Luke Deehan should be extremely proud of himself to get to the final three in a national competition: “We’re all very proud of him and what he’s achieved. Getting to the final three in the Apprentice of the Year Award was a major achievement.”
Eighteen-year-old Luke Deehan is an apprentice working with leading radiator manufacturer Stelrad Radiators in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. Stelrad is the largest provider of a range of predominantly steel panel radiators for the heating industry. The company supplies more than two and a half million radiators a year and operates a massive integrated manufacturing centre and a national distribution centre from its premises in Mexborough. The machinery required to manufacture radiators is complex and requires an excellent team of maintenance engineers to keep the factory running and able to turn out the wide range of designs and sizes required by the company’s customer base.
Luke is from nearby Rotherham and attended St Bernard’s School in the town. He was one of the pandemic affected school pupils, affected by the ‘work from home’ situation that so many pupils had to adapt to over a two year period. Because of the situation with Covid 19, Luke effectively left school early and spent a few months at RCAT – Rotherham College of Arts and Technology – looking broadly at engineering type education but had to undertake home learning because the college was effectively closed to students. This was not very helpful as Luke readily admits to struggling to learn online – he was looking for a much more interactive learning experience and in March 2021 he applied to AMRC – the Advanced Manufacturing & Research Centre at the University of Sheffield in Waverley, to be able to apply for apprenticeships with employers in the region that were looking to take on new young talent for their companies.
Luke applied for several opportunities but was particularly keen on one that was available with Stelrad. He was mature enough to recognise that he needed a role that had a rich variety of work in it rather than one that prepared him for a single engineering / technician type role and was taken with the explanation of the role available with Stelrad. The requirement was for a metal fabrication and welding apprentice, but the job description highlighted the areas of work that he would be trained in as part of the Maintenance Team. He was attracted by the fact that the role would require him to address challenges, be creative in coming up with solutions and presenting them to the team. He would not know from day to day what the next day held or what maintenance tasks might be required of him. That appealed hugely.
He spent the first six months from 31st March 2021 studying for the EAL Level 2 Diploma in Advanced Manufacturing Engineering (Foundation Competence) certificate which was presented to him on 12th October 2021. During this time, he spent the first six months of his apprenticeship on a block training course to master the key elements of the work he was preparing for – working efficiently in an engineering environment, learning the basics of health and safety, and beginning to master the basic skills associated with the different disciplines of arc welding and metal fabrication.
After this initial six months, Luke began to attend work at Stelrad four days a week with one day a week back at AMRC undertaking the theory side of the work and learning how to use and communicate technical information. But the four days a week at Stelrad was the time Luke really enjoyed and revelled in. His mentor at Stelrad was Lee Peplow – a highly skilled individual with more than twenty years experience at Stelrad – very much the level of employee Luke aspired to become. He learned a lot from Lee, working alongside him, watching him at work and having the chance to undertake a variety of jobs and learn more about the equipment and the skills involved in using these pieces of equipment on a daily basis.
Luke has become proficient in a number of different disciplines during his apprenticeship – three different types of arc welding – MMA – Manual Metal Arc Welding. MIG welding, and TIG welding, as well as hand fitting, pipe fitting, sheet metal fabrication and pattern designing.
Luke’s apprenticeship will take him about three years to complete before he is assimilated into the Stelrad Maintenance Team in his own right. He began his third year at the end of March 2023 – from when he has spent all his time at work at Stelrad working in the welding bay and around the factory. His workplace assessor is amassing the evidence required to prove Luke has mastered his trade and put forward the body of work to achieve his end point assessment – a task that will be completed before the end of March 2024.
Lukes mentor at Stelrad, Lee Peplow says: “Luke has been my apprentice for more than two years. During this time, I have seen him develop into an extremely competent welder and fabricator. Luke has demonstrated his skills in MMA, MIG and TIG welding on a number of different materials. Luke has also impressed with his pattern development abilities. He has a great attitude to work and is always open to new challenges in the pursuit of self-progression and development. I am in no doubt that Luke will complete his apprenticeship with flying colours and fulfil his potential at Stelrad.”
