Posted on 11 November
Between swigs of Yorkshire Tea from his cherished Newcastle United mug, Simon Gill shakes his head in disbelief at how much Leeds College of Building (LCB) has changed since September 1976.
That date, just over 50 years ago, saw Simon’s first steps into LCB as an apprentice gas service engineer, where he did three years of block learning.
“It’s changed massively, all the teachers were very formal, they all wore shirts and ties. I remember one of them telling me how he’d been a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp in the Second World War!”
Fast forward to 2026 and we’re sat in a meeting room at LCB’s South Bank Campus where he talks me through his half century college association timeline.
After three years working on a City and Guilds qualification in gas service engineering, a further three years for a Level 3 Technician Education Council certificate in Building Services Engineering followed.
After this six-year study, Simon left LCB for a few years to “actually do some work” but found himself back at the college in 1985 on a two-year HNC programme specialising in gas.
Throughout the ‘90s Simon was in and out of the college taking various courses, until he started working full-time at LCB in 2007.
Starting as a workshop learning support assistant in the workshop, he made his way up to a lecturer role in the gas department, where he worked until his retirement in 2017.
That retirement was short lived, however, as Simon came back to the college the very next year on a part-time contract working as a specialist on internal quality assurance – a position he has held ever since.
Looking back on the myriad positions he’s held at LCB since first walking through the doors, Simon laughs and concedes “yeah, I’ve got myself a bit of a niche doing internal quality assurance.”
Our meeting comes at a pertinent time, the same week that LCB Head of Skills Rachel Nichol (a former student of Simon’s and his current boss) is appointed to the college Board of Governors.
“A good few years after teaching Rachel I was out on site doing an assessment, it turned out the engineer for the company I was working for was Rachel! I told her that they were looking for on-site assessors at LCB and the rest is history.”
This full circle moment isn’t lost on Rachel, “it’s a real role reversal! He still makes me laugh and remains the friendly, supportive person I remember from my student days.”
Rachel, who started at LCB as a student in 2006, is building up an impressive industry CV of her own and has been a full-time member of staff at the college since 2017.
Although her personal experience of how far LCB has come in her time here doesn’t include any prisoners of war, it still speaks to the significant change in student demographics the college has seen over recent years.
“I still remember him gathering the class back together with a cheerful, “Now gents… oh sorry, and lady!” It made me laugh and perfectly captured his friendly personality.”
Spending an afternoon touring his office and the workshops where he made his impression on generations of young learners, Simon’s passion for industry is wonderfully infectious.
Thumbing through prize certificates Simon won between 1976 and 1980, signed by the then Principal Jack Place, it is hard to understate just how much of himself Simon has given to the college.
“Put simply”, Rachel says while discussing Simon’s industrious career – “Simon has always been, and will always be, an asset to LCB.”
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