Andrew Merrett

Said the following about Nicholas Jones:

“Nick Jones is a Signalling Design Apprentice currently in his 3rd year working as a part of the Control Systems Group within Siemens Rail Automation in York. He was recently awarded Higher Apprentice of the Year within Siemens UK in recognition of his outstanding ability, attitude and performance academically and in the work place, his work involves producing new designs, amending existing designs and testing finished systems ensuring that industry, customer, compliance and safety requirements & standards are met.

The Systems Group is made up of a number of small teams based at various Siemens Rail Automation locations around the UK, the whole group supports the Control Systems side of the business across the UK.

Nick has been a key member of the North Lincolnshire Resignalling scheme. Building on his experience assisting WestCAD testing on previous projects, he took a lead role in testing both workstations for North Lincs. He did this with minimal supervision always with an eye to the safety critical nature of the role. Without his efforts, the Contol Systems side of the Workstation testing could not have been completed to the degree it was as he allowed resources to be released to manage the data side of the project.

Nick is not fazed by any task set for him, he is pro-active, works methodically and performs well as part of a team and when working independently. He produces work to a high standard and consistently meets deadlines. He achieved 6 Distinctions and 2 Merits in his HNC, a quote from his course tutor is as follows “Nick is clearly intelligent, dedicated and has high expectations of himself and everyone around him”. Nick is currently studying for an Electronic Engineering degree at the University of Hull which is well beyond the requirements of his apprenticeship. He took part in a new process to map competencies in his IRSE log book to his NVQ, the speed that he was able to do this together with the quality of the way it was presented has impressed me and his NVQ assessor to the extent that we are using his work as a “Model” example to others. He is the first person to do this. Nick’s persistence, endurance and willingness to work have ensured that key deadlines have been met on more than one occasion. Critical testing on the North Lincolnshire project would not have been completed prior to the commissioning were it not for his efforts.“