4 | City of Glasgow College
OPINION
Former students and staff
at City of Glasgow College
talk about their experiences,
their current projects, and
how the college helped
them to achieve their
professional goals
Appreciating
50 years of
excellence
specialising in stress analysis and valve
procurement. I finished off my career
with Subsea 7 where I was in charge
of ten other piping engineers.
Caera Kimmitt,
alumnus, Glasgow College of
Nautical Studies; winner of
Nautilus International's 2015
Bevis Minter Award
To anyone I ever talk to about the
Merchant Navy cadetship, I always
describe it as a golden ticket. Yes, the
course can be intense at times and
perhaps pushes you academically, but
the opportunities that can arise from
completing it makes it worth it. I
thoroughly enjoyed my time spent
studying at City of Glasgow College;
Alex Marjoribanks,
alumnus, Glasgow College
of Nautical Studies
At school, maths, technical drawing and
physics were my strong subjects. After
leaving and working in a bank for a year I
joined the Glasgow shipping company
J&J Denholms to start a seagoing marine
engineering cadetship.
The first two years were spent at
Glasgow Nautical College where I
developed my academic strengths, and
with tutoring and lectures from exseagoing
Merchant Navy engineers and
practical workshop training, I got a good
grounding in both the theory and practice
of mechanics and engineering. These
key insights from experts with real-life
experience set me up well for the rest
of my career. I enjoyed my time at the
college and made many friends for life
with whom I still meet up regularly now.
The cadetship included hugely
beneficial industry training at Kincaid's
of Greenock, one year at Springburn
College to gain practical-based OND
endorsements and then two years of
seagoing experience on deep-sea vessels.
After I returned from sea, I completed
a short apprenticeship as a piping
draughtsperson with the British Steel
Corporation and then worked for them,
Weirs of Cathcart and McDermott
Engineering in Aberdeen. Studying
at night school I gained two HNCs
and an HND, before a BSc and an MSc
in engineering. During this time I
moved to KBR as a piping engineer