Twentieth anniversary portraits: Dr. Steve Johnston of SGAS
07 Jun 2024
As part of our 20th anniversary reflections, we caught up with Dr. Steve Johnston, founder, and Managing Director of SGAS. Steve’s centre, based just outside Blackpool, is LCL Awards centre no. 010, so his relationship with the company goes back a long way.
Steve’s own career in gas started in the early 1980s when he trained as a British Gas engineer. Ten years later he joined CORGI as an inspector and in early 1997 decided he’d like to branch out into training. It was a brave move, but he could see there was a need for a new model in gas training. Some colleges offered ACOP courses in basic gas safety, but there wasn’t a wide range of training available for gas engineers, particularly in private training centres. He’d spotted a gap in the market.
Steve set up SGAS in early 1997 and worked with a couple of different Awarding Bodies before he moved over to Logic Certification. He looks back at what encouraged him to make the shift:
“In 2006, Logic Certification launched their first qualification - a new Energy Efficiency Award, which they designed in response to new compliance requirements for gas installers following a revision of Part L to the Building Regulations. This was a smart move on their part, as the only other Certification Body offering a similar qualification at the time was C&G and unless you were accredited through them, they wouldn’t let you do it. It meant that centres like mine now had a choice.
“I was impressed with Logic’s dynamic approach. They were also offering an electronic exam system which was another draw as it cut down on lots of paperwork and meant our candidates could get their results more quickly. By June 2006, I had moved all our training courses over to Logic Certification, so I suppose that’s when you’d say our relationship really began.”
SGAS started small, but with success came growth. The company has always been based in the same area in the Northwest, but as the business expanded, they moved two or three times, until in 2008 they set up their own purpose-built centre where they’ve been to this day. The company has a great reputation locally and now offers a wide variety of courses in gas, electrics, and renewables. They have a lot of loyalty with customers returning year on year, and consistent five start Google reviews.
“Our reputation means a lot to us; we like to look after people. That goes for our staff as well as customers and over the years we have kept a core team that supports us in delivering what we do.
“As the business has grown, so has our scope. We work with a number of large international clients, for whom we design specific courses. UK gas compliance is admired all around the world and we have developed some specialist qualifications which LCL Award has certified for us. One of these is a Gas Related Incident Investigation course that we developed for Gas Suppliers and other Investigators and Expert Witnesses. It’s the only course of its kind and it’s been used as far afield as Hong Kong.”
Gas utilisation is Steve’s area of expertise. He completed and was awarded a PhD in Explosion Mitigation by Salford University in 2015.
“With LCL Awards’ support, we’ve also developed what we call a Gas Safety Passport, for engineers who work on gas-fuelled power plants all over the World. This qualification is a means of quality assurance, so that wherever the engineers are, their employers know they’re in safe hands. We have a dozen different trainers delivering this qualification in a range of languages all over the World.
“Another big area of our business is the development of bespoke training for industrial gas utilisation. We have designed courses for companies like Jaguar Land Rover and Coca Cola, whose plants run on gas. We offer specific on-site training for their engineers and issue LCL Awards certified qualifications – competence certificates to cover gas safety on the machinery in their plants.
“It's great to see how LCL Awards has developed over the years to support businesses like mine. Quality finds quality! It’s exciting to think what the next couple of decades will bring. I see the UK’s energy future as a ‘blended one’, with natural gas, LPG, hydrogen, biogas, flare gases, fuel oils, renewables and others, playing their part alongside nuclear power.
“I’m sure LCL Awards will continue to be top of the game in years to come and look forward to working with them in the future. Twenty years is a significant milestone and I wish them all the best.”
As part of our 20th anniversary reflections, we caught up with Dr. Steve Johnston, founder, and Managing Director of SGAS. Steve’s centre, based just outside Blackpool, is LCL Awards centre no. 010, so his relationship with the company goes back a long way.
Steve’s own career in gas started in the early 1980s when he trained as a British Gas engineer. Ten years later he joined CORGI as an inspector and in early 1997 decided he’d like to branch out into training. It was a brave move, but he could see there was a need for a new model in gas training. Some colleges offered ACOP courses in basic gas safety, but there wasn’t a wide range of training available for gas engineers, particularly in private training centres. He’d spotted a gap in the market.
Steve set up SGAS in early 1997 and worked with a couple of different Awarding Bodies before he moved over to Logic Certification. He looks back at what encouraged him to make the shift:
“In 2006, Logic Certification launched their first qualification - a new Energy Efficiency Award, which they designed in response to new compliance requirements for gas installers following a revision of Part L to the Building Regulations. This was a smart move on their part, as the only other Certification Body offering a similar qualification at the time was C&G and unless you were accredited through them, they wouldn’t let you do it. It meant that centres like mine now had a choice.
“I was impressed with Logic’s dynamic approach. They were also offering an electronic exam system which was another draw as it cut down on lots of paperwork and meant our candidates could get their results more quickly. By June 2006, I had moved all our training courses over to Logic Certification, so I suppose that’s when you’d say our relationship really began.”
SGAS started small, but with success came growth. The company has always been based in the same area in the Northwest, but as the business expanded, they moved two or three times, until in 2008 they set up their own purpose-built centre where they’ve been to this day. The company has a great reputation locally and now offers a wide variety of courses in gas, electrics, and renewables. They have a lot of loyalty with customers returning year on year, and consistent five start Google reviews.
“Our reputation means a lot to us; we like to look after people. That goes for our staff as well as customers and over the years we have kept a core team that supports us in delivering what we do.
“As the business has grown, so has our scope. We work with a number of large international clients, for whom we design specific courses. UK gas compliance is admired all around the world and we have developed some specialist qualifications which LCL Award has certified for us. One of these is a Gas Related Incident Investigation course that we developed for Gas Suppliers and other Investigators and Expert Witnesses. It’s the only course of its kind and it’s been used as far afield as Hong Kong.”
Gas utilisation is Steve’s area of expertise. He completed and was awarded a PhD in Explosion Mitigation by Salford University in 2015.
“With LCL Awards’ support, we’ve also developed what we call a Gas Safety Passport, for engineers who work on gas-fuelled power plants all over the World. This qualification is a means of quality assurance, so that wherever the engineers are, their employers know they’re in safe hands. We have a dozen different trainers delivering this qualification in a range of languages all over the World.
“Another big area of our business is the development of bespoke training for industrial gas utilisation. We have designed courses for companies like Jaguar Land Rover and Coca Cola, whose plants run on gas. We offer specific on-site training for their engineers and issue LCL Awards certified qualifications – competence certificates to cover gas safety on the machinery in their plants.
“It's great to see how LCL Awards has developed over the years to support businesses like mine. Quality finds quality! It’s exciting to think what the next couple of decades will bring. I see the UK’s energy future as a ‘blended one’, with natural gas, LPG, hydrogen, biogas, flare gases, fuel oils, renewables and others, playing their part alongside nuclear power.
“I’m sure LCL Awards will continue to be top of the game in years to come and look forward to working with them in the future. Twenty years is a significant milestone and I wish them all the best.”