Regional Chairs

Andrew Mitchell

Regional Chair – Yorkshire & Humber

Andrew has been Regional Chair of the Yorkshire and Humber region since 2018.

Having started his career as an ECITB apprentice in the 1990s, Andrew is now Commercial Director for OLG.

He is passionate about training and the work the ECITB delivers to develop the future engineers of tomorrow.

Based in the Humber region, OLG has been operating since 1982 delivering Engineering, Consultancy, Project Management and Recruitment services across the UK.

Andrew is also a board member of CATCH the Humber-based membership and training centre.

He brings over 30 years of engineering construction industry knowledge having also held senior management positions with Engie and Spencer Group.

Jamie White

Regional Chair – Nuclear Skills Forum

Jamie has been involved in skills and training throughout his working life, starting with a 20-year career as an officer in the RAF.

He served in a number of war zones where leadership and meticulous planning were the expectation. He was involved in Battle Management, Intelligence and Flight Operations as well as United Nations Peacekeeping and NATO Ambassadorial roles.

Jamie then joined the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), holding a number of senior roles in his 10-year tenure, including the Head of the National Skills Academy for Construction.

During that time he was involved in many large-scale projects including TTT, the Olympic 2012 build, Highways Agency projects (M25 widening) and Building Schools for the Future.

He joined EDF in 2014 as its Central Training Manager for Hinkley Point C (HPC) and has held roles such as the Construction and Onboarding Manager as well as Senior Strategic Partnership Manager, working both directly for HPC and the wider EDF business.

He is responsible for many strategic projects including HPC’s apprenticeship strategy as well as the ‘Centres of Excellence’ concept.

With a wealth of knowledge around funding and labour market intelligence, he is now on secondment to the NCfN team with an aim to expand the footprint of the college into the south east. This will have a particular focus on Sizewell C and the Green Energy Skills agenda.

John Webster

Regional Chair – Scotland Central

John is the Operations Director for Applus within the UK (HEX, NDT, Rope Access & Training), looking at the ongoing and evolving challenges for the industry in terms of the appropriate skills and competency for testing, inspection and certification.

This oversight includes the planning for future skills development in a challenging market, coupled with the technical innovations within the sector, managing how best to align the skills developed by Applus in Oil & Gas, Nuclear and Aerospace, to bring best practice to the challenges encountered in the delivery of the service provision.

He is a highly experienced and commercially strong, financially focused Operational Director with extensive knowledge within a wide variety of sectors, ranging from Manufacturing to Service Delivery in Offshore / Onshore Oil & Gas, Engineering & NDT Inspection / Rope Access, with experience in Heavy Crane and Plant Hire.

John has long been dedicated to the training and development of all levels of staff and has been involved with the ECITB Apprenticeship Schemes throughout his career at Applus.

He also pioneered the programme within Applus working with the MoD Resettlement Scheme. This identifies and re-trains personnel, enabling them to transition skills gained during their military career into civilian qualifications to become valuable members of the workforce.

A passionate advocate for STEM, John champions industry to take advantage of the whole spectrum of potential candidates to ensure that the skills gap can be adequately managed and that employers can benefit from a more diverse and capable workforce.

Mark Poole

Regional Chair – Wales

Mark’s industry experience spans more than four decades. He started out as a 16-year-old mechanical fitter apprentice but since the late 1980s, Mark’s career has been rooted in the world of training, including close links to Wales, where he co-founded the Cardiff-based charity TRACK 2000. This provided training for the socially disadvantaged.

During the 1990s, Mark held the role of Training and Enterprise Manager of the Vale of Glamorgan Council and was the vice-chair of the region’s Training Provider Association.

He joined the ECITB in 1998 as a Senior Development Advisor within the Product Development Team, where he developed the ECITB’s flagship Supervisory Management Training & Development (SMTD) programme.

He went on to become Head of Partnering and Funding, creating the UK-wide initiative ‘Ambition Energy – Engineering Construction’, and then Regional Operations Manager with responsibility for Wales, the Midlands, South West, South Coast, London Head Offices, East of England and Southern North Sea.

From 2006 to 2020, Mark was founding Managing Director of Phoenix Training Solutions, a leading training provider of the ECITB. During this time, he developed numerous ECITB national courses and assessment tests, such as IOSH Engineering Construction.

Now the Learning and Competence Manager at Altrad, Mark has taken on operational training management for Altrad’s Wales and Southern region.  He is also a member of the ECITB’s CCNSG Committee and has played an instrumental role in creating development pathways.

Phil Colquhoun

Regional Chair – Midlands

Phil is Managing Director at NIRAS Lorien Engineering Solutions (UK) Ltd.

He has had a varied career, having worked in manufacturing and within an international engineering design & project management business serving the Food, Life Sciences and Beverage Industries specialising in capital projects.

NIRAS Lorien Engineering Solutions is part of the NIRAS Group, a value-driven, multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy committed to sustainable progress and service delivery with over 3,000 employees.

A keen advocate for investing in staff training and development, NIRAS Lorien Engineering Solutions has been a long-standing participant in the ECITB ACTIVE Cup project management competition and sends a team every year. Phil, himself, took part in the competition more than two decades ago.

Steve Hamilton

Regional Chair – North Scotland

Steve Hamilton, is Chief Technical Authority, EMEA, with Xodus Group in Aberdeen.

With 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry in both technical and managerial roles, Steve has worked in both a detailed environment and in conceptual studies for operators, contractors and consultants.

His background as a process engineer and a specialist in flow assurance, makes Steve well placed to understand the skills challenges facing the engineering construction sector.