Meet Michael Washbourne, Approved Installer Development Manager

Michael began his career by enrolling on a YTS apprenticeship scheme when he was 16, after finishing school. He was an Apprentice Service Engineer at Johnson Engineering, which serviced lathes and mechanical saws. After that he worked for an electronics company, Davidson Electronics, as a Maintenance Engineer, servicing and repairing emergency lighting systems.

He said: “This led me to BLE where I started as a draughtsman designing products and designing the schemes for emergency lighting and fire alarm systems. I then moved into sales and finished up as a sales manager in the smoke and fire curtain division.”

He moved to Group SCS and spent a number of years as Product Manager, working with clients and suppliers, and promoting new products to the market. Since the introduction of the Group SCS Approved Installer Network in 2017, he has taken a lead role in its development and is now the company’s Approved Installer Development Manager.

Michael, who received recognition of ten years’ service to the company in 2019, said: “I am responsible for the development of the Group SCS Approved Installer Network which includes the initial training and then mentoring them until they have the confidence and competence to take on the larger, more complicated, installations.”

He describes his favourite part of the job as seeing the progression in the Approved Installer projects from small single AOV projects through to the UniForce mechanical extraction systems.

Outside work, Michael is involved with junior football coaching. He explained: “I run the Dronfield Town FC Nursery sessions where we have boys in the Under 5 and Under 6 age groups with the aim being to get kids ready to form an Under 7’s team each season. I also recruit parents to become managers/coaches for the squad who will hopefully take them through the junior football leagues up to Under 18’s.”