‘If you never give up, you can never fail.’

When did you attend CCS? 

From 1993-1998

What is your career now and how have you adapted to the current Covid-19 situation? 

I am a Managing Director of a National Consultancy and Training Provider in Compliance, Counter Threat Security and Teambuilding. The current situation means that I’ve had to adapt my company services in a number of ways to meet the needs of my clients and become much more dynamic in observing and utilising opportunities in the UK market. 

What was your career path, and did you always know you wanted to join the army? 

From a very young age, I always wanted to join the Armed Forces, in particular the Royal Navy as a chef. After School I studied at Stratford-upon-Avon Catering College and joined the Royal Navy sponsor programme. I also attended an Armed Forces ‘look at life’ course and decided from then on, cooking wasn’t for me, and the Army looked a much more attractive option. 

From there I enlisted in the Local Army Reserves (Royal Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry) to make sure I was making the right decision. I was voluntarily mobilised as a full-time reserve soldier for the next four years where I served in several units and two operational tours in the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East. After a year as a normal part-time Reserve Soldier, I joined the Regular Army and served fifteen years in Defence Platoons and Training Wings. My main roles were to counter the terrorist threat posed to military and civil service infrastructures and to train military personal in small arms weapons, field tactics, close quarter battle, incident reaction drills, compliance, and battlefield casualty drills. 

My passion for the training and development of people led to me starting my own micro first aid training company and this rapidly grew into the company it is today - Golbourn Training Solutions, www.golbourntrainingsolutions.co.uk 

High and lows in your career, anything you would do differently? 

In terms of my military career, the highs are the people I’ve met and can call friends and family, including my wife who I met in the forces. The lows relate to the sacrifices my loved ones have had to make in supporting my military service, lost time, and memories of special moments. 

The highs of my current job are the amazing people I work with in both my team and clients. Plus, the company winning several UK awards for excellence! There are very few things I would do differently as what we have done in the past helps us make our futures. 

What's the best thing about your current job, and what about any challenges? 

The variety of my working week. With our professional services branching into three sectors of Compliance, Counter Threat Security and Corporate Teambuilding me and my team never have time to be bored and meet people from all walks of life. 

As well as being the biggest challenge so far, the Covid-19 pandemic has also been our finest hour. We’ve adapted to distance learning for our clients and managed to maintain our services for key workers. We’ve also helped the community with shielding food deliveries and donated airway training equipment to the NHS to help train staff on ventilators.  

What advice would you give to current CCS students/or fellow alumni? 

Treat all people as you want to be treated yourself and find a career you are passionate about, if it does not exist, make it. You are your greatest skill and if you never give up you can never fail.     

What was your favourite subject at school? 

Science, I loved it. I must be honest, I was never a very motivated student in Maths, RE or Geography much to my teachers’ dismay. I enjoyed Art, CDT (DT), History and English. Loved water polo in my last year.   

Do you have any memories of your time at CCS, any favourite teachers? 

Remembrance services at the Church for Armistice Day has always been a strong memory of School days. Some great friends, some sadly not with us anymore and some lost contact, but a pleasure to grow up with them. Some of my teachers were very inspiring characters, three that stand out were Mr Wynn in CDT, my Science teacher Miss Dutton (I believe) and my GCSE year English teacher, his name escapes me but a great teacher.