Mark Hilton, estimator at Kier Highways, recently achieved a distinction in his Level 3 Management Apprenticeship, which was awarded by the IATE (Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education) and was invited to speak to Government about his experiences. Here, he talks about his career so far and how the qualification will help him in future.
“I joined Kier Highways as an assistant estimator in 2013. Prior to this I worked for a local authority highways organisation, in both the client and contracting divisions. Since joining Kier I have worked on various tenders, ranging from relatively small one-off schemes, Kier Highways Solutions tenders, and larger local authority and National Highways contracts, and provided estimating support on other contracts.
“Completing the course has given me the knowledge and skills to enable me to carry out my work to a higher standard. Now that I am responsible for managing other team members, the course has also given me the skills to help them perform to the best of their abilities and to develop their careers as they wish and will also hopefully enable me to progress to a more senior position within the estimating team.
“I found the course content to be immediately useful in my day-to-day job so that I could benefit from the course while on it, especially in areas such as planning and time management.
“I was pleased to be able to provide feedback to Government. The session included several attendees from organisations who had recently completed similar courses and was held so attendees could feedback on the course content and structure, how it benefited them and their organisations, and how it could be improved.
“I found it really encouraging that the Government actively seeks feedback and looks at continuously improving the offering.
“Courses such as these can seem daunting at first, especially if you haven’t been in formal education for a while, but I can honestly the say that the experience was overwhelmingly positive. Both the course provider and my manager were very supportive in helping me achieve my goals.”
