Apprentices – Phil Morgan Account Manager

An Interview with Phil Morgan – Air Conditioning Account Manager and Site Supervisor

In this final of our interview with Kimpton apprentices, we meet Phil Morgan. Phil is another Kimpton apprentice to have won the National Apprentice of the year award, ten years before Chris Tolley’s success. Phil is 44, married to Sharon who looks after our finances here at Kimpton and they have two kids.

“My first day at Kimpton was back in 1990 when I was a fresh faced 16 year old. After finishing my GCSE’s I did a few months as an electrician on a YTS scheme in Birkenhead, but moved to Kimpton when the opportunity came up as it was a proper apprenticeship and I knew the training would be better.

I started as an Apprentice Pipe Fitter and did three spells at college. Two years at Riversdale in Liverpool on a block release Pipe Fitting Course and then a one year course on Air Conditioning as a day release. The last course was a three year day/night course in Electrical Engineering at Old Swan Technical College in Liverpool. This combination has given me a really rounded experience, which is ideal for what I do now as all of these skills are involved.”

Winning Apprentice of the Year must have been a huge honour?

“It was. I remember it well. I went down to London and did an interview with three people who just fired questions at me. About three months later I went back down again, this time with my Mum and Dad and Eric (Kimpton) and was awarded the prize. To be honest I’m not sure what won it for me, but I guess it was because I was doing real work on live jobs alongside the experienced blokes, rather than just making tea and fetching and carrying. So, I had much more actual experience than my peers, but that has always been the Kimpton way.”

So you obviously enjoyed the site work and being out and about?

“I loved working on the tools and was on site for 23 years. I only came into the office five years ago when the opportunity for promotion came my way. To be honest I could never have envisaged myself ever working in an office but I love it and still work very closely with the team in the field”

So how did your progression go?

“Well, to be honest, most of the team I work with now, I’ve worked with for years. When I started, I was an apprentice under Colin Swanick who was then a heating engineer. He’s now progressed to be the Service Director. I work alongside my brother Andy Morgan, who was originally my apprentice and is now the Air Conditioning Manager, so we have all moved up together really”

How did you find it, moving into the office?

“Easier than I thought. What I have found is that with having that many years out there, it’s much easier to help the engineers with any problems they may be facing. We bounce ideas off each other and it means we solve things much quicker together as we know where to look first”

And where next?

“There are opportunities opening up within the business. I love what I’m doing and I can see a path for me here. `So, my future is with Kimpton”

In previous posts we see Richard Kimpton talking about apprenticeships, then talk to Chris Tolley.