Welcome to Watkins.
This page is your hub. Pick the department you’re placed with below, then work through the activities in any order your buddy suggests. Bookmark it — you’ll come back to it.
What do you already know?
Ten quick questions. Don't worry about getting things wrong — the whole point is to find out what's new to you. We'll do the same quiz at the end so you can see how much you've picked up.
Spot the hazards.
Four scenes — Office, Construction site, Commercial kitchen and a School classroom. Click any hazard you spot and it'll be added to your shopping list on the right. Try to find them all in each scene before moving on.
Office
0 / 0 found- Click any hazard you spot in the picture to log it here…
Risk assessment.
Now you've spotted the hazards, let's grade them. Pick four hazards from the spot-the-hazards exercise above (any of the four scenes). Score how likely each is to happen and how severe the consequences would be — both 1 to 5. The matrix on the right tells you what your score means. Real Watkins risk assessments are filled in exactly like this.
Risk Assessment
Apprenticeship hub.
Your big project is to build a flyer for one of these apprenticeship routes. Read everything in the matching tab, watch the videos, then dig further on the official sites linked below.
Installation & Maintenance Electrician — Level 3 Apprenticeship
Typical length: 4 years Level 3 (A-level equivalent) Earn while you learn
Salary snapshot (UK)
Year 1 apprentice: ~£14,000–£18,000
Year 4 apprentice: ~£22,000–£28,000
Qualified electrician: ~£32,000–£45,000+
Site supervisor / approved electrician: ~£45,000–£60,000+
Salaries vary by region and employer. London and specialist contracts pay more.
How you get in
- GCSE grade 4 (C) or above in English & Maths is standard
- Apply through an employer (like Watkins) or via apprenticeship websites
- Day-release at a local college (typically one day a week)
- End-Point Assessment (EPA) at the end
- Pass the AM2 — a tough practical exam
Meet "Jamie" — a fictional Watkins electrical apprentice
Year 3, Level 3 Installation & Maintenance Electrician
"I'm 19 and in my third year. Most days I'm on a site with my mentor — a qualified spark called Dan. Recently we've been first-fixing a new-build school: pulling cables through the joists before the plasterboard goes up, fitting back-boxes, terminating into consumer units. Wednesdays I go to college for the BTEC theory side — circuit calculations, the wiring regs, science."
"The bit that surprised me? How much of the job is reading drawings and thinking before you cut anything. The 'measure twice, cut once' thing is real. Also, electrics is genuinely safe if you respect it — every job starts with proving dead, isolating, and locking off. People get hurt when they get cocky."
"My advice: get good at maths. Not scary maths — Pythagoras, percentages, ratios. And practise being on time. Sounds boring, but you turn up at 7:30am every day for four years and you're already winning."
A day in the life
07:30 Arrive on site, sign in, attend the morning briefing & toolbox talk.
08:00 Collect drawings & permits, get tools from the van.
08:15 Start work — today, second-fixing socket outlets in a finished room.
10:00 Tea break.
10:15 Continue — testing each circuit before energising.
12:30 Lunch.
13:00 Help senior electrician trace a fault on the lighting circuit.
15:30 Tidy work area, sign off completed circuits, log hours in apprentice diary.
16:30 Off site. On college days, swap site for a classroom 9:00–17:00.
Pros
- No student debt — paid from day one
- Hands-on, no two days the same
- Genuinely useful skill for life
- Strong career ladder & route to self-employment
- Always in demand — the country needs more sparks
Honest cons
- Early starts, all weather, sometimes dusty/dirty conditions
- Physical work — kneeling, ladders, carrying tools
- The wiring regs (BS 7671) are a big book and you have to know it
- AM2 is genuinely hard — most people are nervous
- Pay in year 1 is low, but it climbs steadily
Watch & read further
Plumbing & Domestic Heating Technician — Level 3 Apprenticeship
Typical length: 3–4 years Level 3 (A-level equivalent) Gas-safe pathway
Salary snapshot (UK)
Year 1 apprentice: ~£14,000–£18,000
Year 4 apprentice: ~£22,000–£28,000
Qualified plumber: ~£28,000–£40,000
Gas-safe heating engineer / self-employed: ~£40,000–£60,000+
Adding gas (ACS), oil (OFTEC) or renewables (heat pumps) qualifications grows your pay sharply.
How you get in
- GCSE grade 4 (C) or above in English, Maths & ideally a science
- Apply through an employer or via apprenticeship websites
- Day-release at college, or block-release weeks
- End-Point Assessment with practical and theory tests
- Optional next steps: Gas Safe registration, F-Gas, heat pump install training
Meet "Priya" — a fictional Watkins plumbing apprentice
Year 2, Level 3 Plumbing & Domestic Heating Technician
"I'm 18, second year. People assume plumbing is just unblocking sinks. It's not. This week I've been installing a new bathroom suite in a refurb job — running copper and plastic pipework, soldering joints, fitting a thermostatic shower valve, pressure-testing the system before we plaster over the chases. Last month I helped my mentor commission a heat pump, which is the future."
"What I love is the puzzle. Why is this radiator cold? Could be a stuck TRV, an airlock, sludge, or a pump issue. You have to think methodically. I also like that what I make is useful — someone is going to have a hot shower tomorrow because of what I did today."
"Advice: don't be put off if you've never seen yourself in a trade. There aren't enough women in plumbing and the industry knows it. The work is technical, clean(er than people think), and pays really well once you're qualified."
A day in the life
07:30 Arrive at job, set up dust sheets, run risk assessment in your head.
08:00 Toolbox talk on hot-works permits.
08:15 Isolate water at the stop-tap, drain down the system.
09:30 Cut and prepare copper pipe, deburr, flux, solder joints.
11:00 Tea.
11:15 First-fix radiator pipework along the wall chase.
13:00 Lunch.
13:30 Pressure-test, look for leaks, refill system.
15:30 Bleed radiators, balance the system, sign off.
16:30 Tidy, clean tools, log apprentice diary.
Pros
- No student debt — earn while you learn
- Huge variety: domestic, commercial, renewables, gas
- Always in demand (boiler-to-heat-pump shift means even more demand)
- Clear self-employment route once qualified
- Working with hands and brain — proper problem-solving
Honest cons
- Sometimes physical / awkward positions (lofts, under sinks)
- Can be wet, occasionally smelly (drains)
- Hot works mean burn risks — strict permits required
- You'll do call-outs that involve flooded houses and stressed customers
- Gas Safe is its own qualification — a big extra step
Watch & read further
Your flyer brief.
Pick either Electrical or Plumbing & heating. Make a one-page A4 flyer that explains the apprenticeship to people your age.
The brief
Audience: Year 9, 10 & 11 students at your school deciding what to do after GCSEs.
Tone: Honest, modern, not a recruitment poster from 1995.
Goal: Anyone reading it should be able to say "yes / no / maybe" in 60 seconds about whether this is for them.
Format: A4, one side, designed in Canva (free).
Hand in: PDF emailed to your HSEQ buddy on your last day.
Must include
- What the apprenticeship is called & what level
- How long it takes
- What you need to get in
- Salary at start & end
- What you actually do day-to-day
- One real career path / progression ladder
- One myth-buster
- Where to find out more
Design tips
- Hierarchy: one big headline, three big things, then small detail
- Less is more: if it doesn't earn its space, cut it
- Real photos > stock illustrations wherever possible
- Two fonts max
- Colour: 1 brand colour + black + white is plenty
- Read it aloud
HSEQ glossary.
HSEQ is full of letters. Here are the ones you’ll hear most — tap any term to see what it means.
HSEQ
Health, Safety, Environment & Quality.
HSE
Health and Safety Executive — the UK government regulator.
RAMS
Risk Assessment & Method Statement.
COSHH
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health.
RIDDOR
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences Regulations.
PPE
Personal Protective Equipment — last line of defence, not the first.
LOTO
Lock-Out Tag-Out — physically locking equipment OFF.
ALARP
As Low As Reasonably Practicable.
CDM
Construction Design & Management Regulations.
EMS
Environmental Management System — usually ISO 14001.
WEEE
Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment.
Hierarchy of Controls
Eliminate → Substitute → Engineering → Administrative → PPE.
Near miss
An event that could have caused injury but didn’t.
Toolbox talk
A short safety briefing at the start of a shift.
Permit to Work
Formal authorisation for a high-risk task.
The environment side.
Health and safety protects people. The environmental side protects everything else — air, water, soil, and the species that share them.
Site waste & segregation
Construction creates roughly a third of all UK waste. Skips are colour-coded by type. Putting the wrong thing in the wrong skip is illegal and expensive.
Net zero & carbon
The UK's legal target is net zero by 2050. For an MEP contractor the big levers are fuel, materials, and the buildings we install in.
Pollution prevention
One litre of diesel can pollute a million litres of water. Spill kits go on every site & van.
ISO 14001
The international standard for managing environmental impact.
Bonus activity — Operation Net Zero.
Scenario: Greenfield & Sons Ltd is a 65-employee plumbing & heating contractor with one head office, a small workshop & yard, and a fleet of nine diesel vans. The new MD wants to halve the company’s carbon footprint by 2030. The bank has approved a one-off sustainability budget. Your job: click cards into your plan to maximise carbon saved within budget. Watch out for tempting-but-pointless choices.
Energy
Fleet
Waste & water
People & process
Offsets & extras
End-of-placement quiz.
Same questions, different order. How much did you pick up?
Generate your certificate.
Type your full name and click the button. Print it (or "Save as PDF") and take it home.
Watkins HSEQ Academy
Certificate of Completion
This is to certify that
has successfully completed the Watkins HSEQ work-experience programme,
demonstrating curiosity, problem-solving, and a real commitment to keeping people safe.
Awarded by the Watkins HSEQ Department