Training & Technical

Tullos Training, an employer-led engineering skills training college in Aberdeen recently twinned with School 67 in Belarus. It has pledged to help provide teaching resources and supplies for the college, which equips young men and women with practical plumbing skills.

Senior lecturer, Jim Booth, and head of the plumbing and heating department at Tullos is appealing for other training organisations, manufacturers and plumbers to donate learning materials, tools and product samples to help boost the inadequate resources available to teachers at School 67.

Visiting lecturer at Tullos and vice president of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE), Allan McIntosh has been involved with Gomel in Belarus since the two cities twinned in 1990. Now chairman of the twinning committee, his previous experience of the region helped shape Tullos Training’s approach to the link-up, deciding to donate teaching materials and basic tools rather than the latest equipment.
 
Allan said: “Over the years we have been visiting Gomel we have realised that sending equipment alone is not the best way to help the people in Belarus. We have seen first hand in local hospitals for example where incubators had been sent out form the UK – but sat there unused because the electric plug wasn’t the same as in Belarus and the hospital didn’t have an electrician available or the tools to carry out what would seem to us to be a very easy job. We take so much for granted in this country it is difficult to come to terms with just how basic things are in Belarus.”

Jim and Steve plan to return to School 67 in August to spend more time with the lecturers and pupils to assess the needs of the college and begin putting a training programme together. It is hoped that in 2011 teachers from School 67 will travel to Aberdeen to attend Tullos Training to receive training in the British plumbing trade which they can pass on to their pupils. In years to come the two colleges will operate an exchange scheme for trainees.

If you have any tools, product samples or training materials that are in good condition and working order that you would like to donate to School 67 please contact Jim Booth on 01224 872316, e-mail j.booth@tullostraining.co.uk or Allan McIntosh at wa@themcintosh.net