Bringing a military approach to teaching

As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, discovered on meeting one of the two co-founders, ex-Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) artificer sergeant-major (ASM) and MoD engineering trainer, Robert Strange, many of the company’s key trainers have a strong military background, and it is the rigorous and disciplined approach this enables them to bring to their training that he believes singles the company out.

Founded in 2006 by ex-MOD REME engineers, Rob Strange (now MD) and Steve Holt (engineering director), Avensys Medical today not only provides engineering support to 50 private hospitals, 12 NHS hospitals, six NHS Community Trusts, and a significant number of dental and veterinary practices, but is also the ‘service arm’ for a number of manufacturers. What makes the company unique in the UK, however, Robert Strange told me when I met him at the company’s Kidderminster headquarters, is that it also offers a wide range of tailored and modular, job-specific training for users of medical and dental equipment throughout the UK. Among the recipients are electro-biomedical engineers in NHS hospitals and private healthcare facilities maintaining anything from infusion pumps and anaesthetic machines, to premature baby incubators or X-ray equipment. 

 Alongside delivering training from its Kidderminster Training Academy – which is equipped with the latest medical and dental equipment to provide a training environment as close as possible to a ‘real world’ scenario – Avensys also offers distance learning options. This allows both new entrants, and seasoned EBME engineers, to boost their skills and advance their careers without impacting on their day-to-day work.