A Tees Valley student has turned his life around by retraining as a plumber after being made redundant from his previous job.

Darren Lees, from Normanby, lost his job as a goldsmith after his employer decided to move production to a factory in the far-east and was left facing the daunting prospect of having to find a new trade after 20 years.

Darren enrolled onto a Level 2 course in plumbing at Redcar & Cleveland College and since then he’s never looked back.

Talking about the course, which he has completed in record time, Darren says:

“I wanted to learn a new trade that would allow me to utilise the manual skills that I had developed in my job as a jeweller and when the staff at the college suggested plumbing I thought I’d give it a go.

“It was daunting at first and I was by far the oldest student on the course, but after a while I began to relax and really enjoy the course.

Darren impressed his tutors at the college so much that he is now employed as a plumbing technician for 4 days a week, helping out with the younger students. He is also studying towards his Level 3 qualification in Plumbing at the same time.

Head of the plumbing division at Redcar & Cleveland College, Harry Teasdale, has been impressed by Darren’s enthusiasm on the course. He said:

“Darren is a great example to people that it is never too late in life for you to retrain and learn a new skill.

“Since he started at the college he has shown that with hard work and determination anything is possible and he has become something of a role-model to younger students in his group.”

Despite being conscious of his age at first, Darren now feels that it’s not something to worry about:

“There’s lots of mature students here at the college and I know some of them from years ago.

“Age isn’t a barrier – you’ve just got to go for it and you’ll achieve your goal!”