Welcome back to the In The Pipeline series! I’m Emma White, a member of the marketing team here at OCU Group. In this sixth episode, we delve into the heart of our OCU Academy in Sheffield. If you haven’t listened to our previous episodes, I highly recommend you check them out. We’ve had insightful conversations with key personnel about our most exciting projects and the crucial topics we proudly support.
Don’t forget to follow us on social media. Our Instagram is @ocu_group, and you can find us on LinkedIn under OCU. Now, let’s dive into today’s feature.
The OCU Academy is one of our three training centres, the others being in Neath and Borehamwood. Located in Sheffield, this academy focuses mainly on safety and telecoms. With courses ranging from splicing and jointing to confined space training, the academy is open to anyone interested in the industry, whether they’ve just left school or are on the cusp of retirement.
To give you a better understanding of our academy, let’s introduce you to some of our dedicated assessors. Each comes from a different background and plays a unique role in our success.
Wesley Marsden:
Wesley transitioned from a teaching career to work at OCU. His extensive experience is applied to various courses, including Openreach craft courses and smart walls safety. “I would really like the school to progress and become a main provider for apprenticeships,” Wesley shared.
Peter Williams:
Peter moved from compliance and internal audits to the training department after completing his Level 4 IQA qualification. He’s currently working towards his Level 3 CARVA to become a training assessor.
Phil Jones:
Phil joined OCU in January, drawn by the ambition and future plans of the academy. He focuses on NASRA training, which includes traffic management, tarmacking, and slabbing. Phil aims to extend their training modules to Wales.
Jonathan Spelling:
Jonathan is enthusiastic about building a strong team at OCU South and aims to become a lead assessor and IQA.
Ross Ridge:
Ross joined OCU as a cabler and quickly advanced to a frontline manager and trainer. He is passionate about improving training accreditation in Wales and ensuring safety across all processes.
Jamie Betterton:
Before joining the OCU Academy, Jamie was a language teacher. In Sheffield, he focuses on making training materials more accessible for students.
Adam Robinson, the National Technical Training Manager, oversees everything at the OCU Academy—from classroom content to the training processes and the build of the “village.” The village is a unique training environment designed to simulate real-world field conditions but with more control and direction from assessors.
To see the village in all its glory, head over to our YouTube channel, OCU, where Adam provides an exclusive tour. The village is built to resemble a real village, complete with roads, zebra crossings, and traffic management setups, offering a realistic training environment for our engineers.
Visiting the OCU Academy in Sheffield highlighted the extra mile OCU goes to educate engineers in their specialities and the importance of health and safety. But our involvement doesn’t stop there; OCU is deeply committed to community involvement and festive cheer.
Recently, we celebrated the start of our festivities with Christmas Jumper Day. This event spread festive cheer while supporting crucial campaigns like Save the Children UK and Shelter. Thanks to our external suppliers, executive board, procurement team, and generous donors, we raised over £4,000 to buy Christmas presents for Mission Christmas Manchester, benefitting children living in poverty.
Additionally, our team in Bicester was praised by the charity Bicester Green for their exceptional help in cleaning up a local yard. Well done to everyone involved!
Thank you so much for reading and staying connected with OCU. Please continue to share more amazing news and stories with our marketing team. As we approach the festive season, I urge everyone to stay safe and enjoy the build-up to Christmas.
Stay tuned and have a wonderful holiday season!
