Jordon Place remembers a childhood conversation with his grandfather that set him on the path to a solid and successful career.

The 24-year-old has landed a job as a fire alarm technician at Besco after several years of study and apprenticeships and is loving every minute of it.

His grandfather had told him: “You need to learn a trade.” And Jordon took his advice on board.

“Once you know a trade, there’s not many people who can tell you, you can’t do that, so I wanted to see where I could go with it,” he said.

“I spoke to my mama and she knew someone who worked at P&M Electrics and she pretty much hooked me up with a job.”

That was ten years ago. The young Jordon would spend his summer and Christmas vacations building his skills and he soon realised a career in electrics was the way forward.

He signed up to do a course at Bermuda College and started an apprenticeship at Universal Electric.

He eventually graduated with a Certificate in Electrical Wiring and Telecommunication and knew he wanted to specialise in fire alarms.

“I found it better than electrical really,” he said. “Electrical you deal with higher voltage and I like more technically challenging things – with fire alarms, there are smaller components and a little more calculation.”

He started his new apprenticeship at Besco in March and is part of a team that is responsible for all of Belco’s fire-alarm systems, as well as some residential and commercial systems.

Asked about the most challenging part of his job, Jordon said: “Grasping some of the code was pretty challenging — both electrical and fire alarms have a code book and each one is a pretty thick book. It basically states everything you can and can’t do.

“Whenever you are doing a new job or servicing you have to keep in mind what can go wrong and how to fix it and what to do to get optimal efficiency out of the system. There is a lot that goes into it.

“You need a basic knowledge if electrics — you don’t want to find yourself running the live conductors wearing jewellery or anything. It’s basic teaching.”

As for the best part of his job, Jordon did not hesitate to highlight the camaraderie among his workmates.

“I have a very funny crew that I work with,” he laughed. “No day is boring with these guys — we crack jokes with each other but we still get the work done.

“I do like the guys I work with. We help each other out — I don’t necessarily do security but sometimes I will go and help them out.”

Jordon said he would encourage other young men and women to consider the trade he has chosen.

“For the most part if someone is interested in it, I would say go for it,” he said.

“It’s a good trade to know. I feel it is a very high demand job — not a lot of people do fire alarms.

“I know a lot of electricians and many of them don’t know anything about fire alarms — it is like another job on its own.

“Some of the technicians I work with they are very knowledgeable. If you take the time to learn about it and you are serious about it, it is a very worthwhile and well-paid job.”