Former Gordon Schools pupil Michael Rough decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps when he applied for a joinery apprenticeship at Stewart Milne Homes.
The company put him through his joinery qualifications at North East Scotland College and then encouraged him to continue his education through undertaking an HNC in Built Environment.
Graduating yesterday, he said: “My dad is a joiner at Stewart Milne, so going into the trade just made sense. In all, I was at NESCol for five years – the facilities there are brilliant.”
During his first three years of training, the 25-year-old was incredibly successful, winning the Best Apprentice in Joinery award three years running at NESCol’s Construction Crafts Awards, and more.
He said: “When I finished my joinery training, my lecturers mentioned the Built Environment course to me and even though I knew it would be harder, I wanted to push myself to gain a higher qualification.”
Taking the course in his stride – gaining good passes in all of his modules while he studied part-time and continued working for Stewart Milne – he hasn’t said goodbye to the apprenticeship lifestyle just yet.
From college, Mr Rough applied to a new graduate apprenticeship at Robert Gordon University, where he is now working towards a BSc (Hons) in Construction and Built Environment. This has also come with a job change within his company too, going from joiner to apprentice assistant site manager.
He said: “I’m hoping the graduate apprenticeship will qualify me to become a site manager and potentially progress my career even further.”