Paul from Gates E&S on why he trained and the perks of staying residential

Paul, a quality engineer from Gates E&S attended an ISO 9001 lead auditor training course in Leeds, and these were his thoughts:

Why did you decide to train as a lead auditor?

Well, it was actually to improve our internal auditing process, my company felt it was necessary to have a lead auditor manage our team of internal auditors. We thought it would give us greater insight into the process of an external audit and would therefore make us better prepared.

From a personal point of view I chose to train as a lead auditor because I though it would help me to progress my career, whether it be in my current role or something else; I guess training as a lead auditor really opens a lot of doors.

How did the course go?

At the start of the course I was quite nervous, my knowledge of the standard was okay and I had done the pre-coursework but I knew it was going to be full on. Luckily David (the tutor) really put me at ease, he seemed to understand how intense the course felt and explained everything through in manner that was easy to understand; he made the course very enjoyable. There were a few other things that made my experience more pleasant as well, things like the student notebook with all the slides in it and staying in the hotel.

Why was staying in the hotel overnight useful?

The most obvious element was that it was more convenient. I didn’t have to worry about where I was, I also had a lot more time in the evenings to look through my notes and revise.

Another reason was that I was able to speak more to the tutor and other delegates. David, the tutor was available in the evenings to clear up any queries that I had and we were even able to discuss a few other topics more in depth too.

There was also a social element with other delegates. I was able to meet a lot of people from other industries, this gave me insight into how the standard has been implemented into different areas. We’ve actually stayed in contact to see how we all do.

Gates Engineering & Services