Working at AC Gold

Ashley is an ambitious and intelligent young lady who has a very kind and thoughtful side to her that can only be described as having a heart of gold.  She has a great character and a really good sense of humour and behind her attractive blonde hair and blue eyes it only takes a short amount of time to realise that Ashley is made of different stuff than your average human being.

The first time that I heard of Ashley was in February 2008 when we used to operate from STEP – the former John Player Cigarette Factory in Stirling.  A former manager asked me how I felt about taking on a female apprentice because another electrical contractor had two apprentices working for them but due to a shortage of work had already transferred one of them to us and there was a second apprentice who was Ashley.  Of course we would take on a girl apprentice, we had previously employed girl apprentices but through their own choices didn’t want to take the opportunity to the next stages. The boy or laddie, as a young apprentice is often referred to was in the office one day and we had already had word back that he was a cut above the average 1^st year apprentices – ahead in rewiring, understanding lighting circuits etc, he knew the job and made a good team when placed with an electrician.  We asked him what the girl apprentice was like  ‘Good, better than Me’ was his reply.  This answer definitely got the attention of everyone in the room and as we were open minded Ashley started officially as an electrical apprentice with AC Gold shortly after.  She started-off well and any time that we saw her in the office she was happy and excited about her job and the reports from site were all very good – it was a great success and very rewarding to see it all happening.

Ashley progressed through her apprentice with a great confidence and ability, so much so that she was able to take responsibility with the planning and supervising of jobs, driving them to completion even before she had passed her final qualifications.  Ashley was AC Golds first employee to finish an apprenticeship placement early – being put forward for the final FICA exam 12 months early and of course passing with glowing colours.

Ashley quickly progressed and went on to take the position of contracts manager running multiple contracts, being responsible for workforce development and being one of the champions of the AC Gold apprentice program which under Ashley’s supervision alone has seen 12 apprentices successfully progress through to the qualified level – SVQ level 3 SJIB recognised – BS 7671

When asked what her proudest moment was she answered that ‘the most testing and rewarding time in her career at AC Gold was in 2012 when the work load more than doubled at exactly the same time as the return timescales were seriously reduced’  Her supervisor had stepped aside through pressures leaving Ashley inline to take on this huge amount of extra work and she thrived in the excitement and delivered it all exceptionally well.  Quite amazing!

Ashley had to take some time out of her working schedule in 2015 when she had baby Emily.  Emily is a brilliantly smart and remarkable, cool little kid and is often in the office, only for an hour here and there but complete with her ipad, colouring book and pencils and when asked at home how her day was her reply is ‘I was at the office today – I was in a meeting!’  Emily is currently 3yrs old & looking forward to her last year of nursery before progressing onto primary school  ….like mother like daughter.

It has been a total pleasure to watch Ashley progress constantly from that ‘school leaver era’ as someone very keen to save her apprenticeship position after the original employer situation and then grabbing every single opportunity that came forwards at AC Gold – progressing onto the highest levels of management within the company ….and also having time for a life outside of work.

Ashley is a glowing example of AC Gold’s vision to give opportunity and reward to individuals for their loyalty, hardwork & dedication.  This is only the Success story so far and we are sure will be extended and rewritten many times throughout the years to come.