Andy Dinsdale – Becoming an officer

Simon: How does the Officer bit come around then? Is that something you apply for or you’re selected for?

Well, it’s a bit of both really. It’s through discussion with my bosses at the time, and as an Apprentice, I guess most people when I was joining as an Apprentice were coming straight from ‘O’ Levels, ‘cos you didn’t need ‘A’ Levels to be an Apprentice, but I’d done that extra sort of 2 years, got a few ‘A’ Levels and so in principle as an Apprentice, I was sort of overqualified.

I wasn’t at all but the view was maybe there were other things you could do and I guess it was through discussion with people, my bosses at the time recognised that I had the potential as well as being a good Senior Rate, is to be an Officer ‘cos I had the qualities that they perceived to be an Officer and an Engineer.

So, it’s a bit of you know, I had to want to do it obviously, so you do have to apply for it, but then you need to get the appropriate recommendations and you pass Interview Panels and things like that, so it’s a bit of both to be honest.