Fifteen years’ service that started from an Apprenticeship Scheme

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Robert Smith on fifteen years’ of outstanding service to the business.

After leaving school, Robert, Joined Tomcat as an engineering apprentice in September 2005; shortly after Tomcat moved to its present home on the Gloucester Business Park.  Tomcat was very different in those days; without the sophisticated software, processes and systems we have at our disposal now.  Not only that, but Tomcat was like no other engineering company because of our policy of bespoke building, thus every day presented a new challenge in design or production.

Much was expected of the new apprentice, but many unique opportunities to learn and develop his skills also came with those challenges.

With good school grades and an excellent college performance that led to an Engineering Diploma in Manufacturing, the company was never surprised that Robert climbed the management ladder; it was the way he achieved it that was so impressive.

Learning workshop skills predominated during his apprentice years when he learnt his basic engineering knowledge, but due to an ever-broadening portfolio of products and accessories the company engineering challenges progressed to include the control of production efficiency as a major challenge.

Identifying many of the problems and their solutions, Robert asked if he could take over management of materials control – the ever-increasing challenge of finding and managing components and suppliers.

Within months the shortages were under control with Robert demonstrating his shrewd ability to ask for guidance when needed whilst acting on his own initiative when it wasn’t.  Executing that skill throughout the following years has seen him progress to his current position of Production Manager where he is responsible for all aspects of engineering production at Tomcat, together with the complex infrastructure that supports it.

It is very heartening for the company to see a Tomcat trained engineer achieve so much during his employment and we feel sure that he will rise to the challenges yet to come.

Bob Griffin, Managing Director.