Finning’s very own Chris Clarke has had years of experience which has helped push our efforts to be part of the Armed Forces Covenant and strive to build relationships and links for any of the Armed Forces Personnel to find a Civilian career within Finning.
Chris’ experience started when he joined the Armed Forces, specifically joining the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in September 1999. At the very young age of 16, it was here that Chris started out as an apprentice tradesman.
He started to develop and learn his skills, completing his basic training in Arborfield before being posted to Borden where he completed his trade training as a Vehicle Mechanic A. This gave him a fantastic set of skills which would allow him to repair and maintain the Army’s heavy armored vehicles, including one of the best British Tanks, the famous Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank.
As of September 11th, 2001, Chris was posted to the 6th Batallion REME in Tidworth where he joined the Power Pack Platoon, looking after the Engines and Transmissions for all the armored vehicles. In this posting, Chris had the opportunity to take part in multiple exercises in Canada, somewhere which is very familiar to us here at Finning.
It was during 2004 that Chris was promoted to Lance Corporal and was posted to the 1st Batallion, Staffordshire Regiment, where he played his part in the regiments 6-month deployment to Al Amarah, Iraq on Op Telic 6.
After almost 8 years, Chris felt it was time to move on from the Armed Forces and pursue a civilian career, initially finding a job within the plant industry as he found a lot of his skills were highly transferrable. After moving back to Wales, Chris worked in a HGV main dealer but despite his love and personal interest for trucks, he found the style of work unfulfilling, not building on his strengths and qualities developed in the Armed Forces and felt the pull of the plant industry tempting him back.
It was in March 2012 that the opportunity came along for Chris to join the Finning team in Llantrisant, where he further developed on his skills and built on his product knowledge. Finning, seeing the value in Chris and his background, invested into developing him into a highly respected workshop engineer.
With the combination of the skills, the Armed Forces, and industry knowledge, Chris made a jump from engineering into recruitment where he has been ever since, aiding Finning with new recruits and offering support to all Armed Forces personnel looking to pursue a civilian career, as Chris did, all those years ago…
However, it hasn’t stopped there, Chris’ son Alex is following in the footsteps of Chris, with his passion for the corps being felt throughout the family, Alex is currently undergoing his Initial Trade Training at DSEME to become a vehicle mechanic. Just maybe, we might see Alex doing a fantastic job here at Finning in the future too…
