L4 Distinction & Army Awards Nomination

TCP were contracted to provide industry accredited civilian qualifications for Royal Signals personnel undertaking phase 2 and phase 3 training and employed within Field Army Communications Units. 

Lance Corporal John Hawkes is one of those who has undertaken the Network Engineer Level 4 Apprenticeship (revised version 1.2/July 2021). In his instance this apprenticeship qualification closely aligned to the Initial Trade Training that John undertook at DSCIS Blandford which prepared him for the complex and challenging job role at his current unit, where he is employed as an Information Services Engineer. 

John’s communications role within his Squadron sees him in command of a Lightweight Node that provides Tactical Communications Information Systems (TACSYS) into a wider and more complex communications network that provides its clients with up-to-date tactical communications to be able to command troops supporting operations and deployments as required worldwide.

Despite a busy and often hectic operations and deployment schedule, John worked with an elevated level of aptitude, diligence, and motivation throughout and was extremely proactive in his approach to learning new skills and benchmarking competence for the duration of the apprenticeship, including Gateway confirmation and End Point Assessment. He often completed tasks and targets before their due date and always looked for further ways to improve his newly gained knowledge, understanding and skillsets.

He achieved all of this whilst his unit was involved in two major deployments to Germany and USA for large scale communications exercises in the past 15 months. (The latter was the largest allied forces communications exercise in the past 30 years, which delayed his qualification being completed a lot sooner. Irrespective of the delay he was still able to complete three months before his planned end date.)

John excelled through his Gateway preparation and Mock Assessments and managed the End Point Assessment process with equal diligence and professionalism that he has demonstrated from day one on programme and was awarded an extremely creditable Distinction upon completion of EPA. He was the first apprentice in his unit to complete and achieve at this level.

John’s achievement meant that his Commanding Officer Lt Col Vanessa McDermott personally promoted his achievement and talents to a wider audience, and he is now being put forward to the overall Army Awards.

John is now earmarked to become an apprenticeship mentor (champion) for other soldiers who are undertaking this award within his Squadron and unit so that they can benefit from his abilities and commitment. His Squadron Operations Team and Officer Commanding at 228 Signal Squadron have agreed to recommend this course of action and have added weight for the CO to consider this recommendation for action across the unit, thus increasing the engagement for apprenticeships and supporting the increase of success for other apprentices.

John had been able to demonstrate how the knowledge, skills, and behaviours he has learned have been used within his complex work role. These have helped him to build essential experience that benefit his military service or can be used in future in a civilian role. A compelling example of the value of apprenticeships for the individual and employing unit/regiment.

Written by Ray Williams - The College’s Partnership Regional Manager (Royal Signals Team South)