Gas lecturer marks 50 years at Leeds College of Building as former student joins its board

Leeds College of Building (LCB) has marked 50 years since Simon Gill first arrived as an apprentice gas service engineer in September 1976, in the same week his former student and current manager Rachel Nichol joined its Board of Governors.

The college published the profile on 11 November. Gill began on a three-year block-learning programme and took a City and Guilds qualification in gas service engineering, followed by a further three years on a Level 3 Technician Education Council certificate in Building Services Engineering, LCB said.

He returned to the college in 1985 for a two-year HNC programme specialising in gas, and joined the staff full-time in 2007. Starting as a workshop learning support assistant, he progressed to a lecturer role in the gas department, where he worked until retiring in 2017.

Simon Gill, internal quality assurance specialist at LCB, said of the college he joined in 1976: "It's changed massively, all the teachers were very formal, they all wore shirts and ties."

The retirement was brief. The college said Gill came back the following year on a part-time contract as a specialist in internal quality assurance, a role he still holds. Prize certificates he won between 1976 and 1980 were signed by the then principal, Jack Place.

From student to governor

Rachel Nichol started at LCB as a student in 2006 and has been a full-time member of staff since 2017, the college said. The profile describes her as LCB Head of Skills; the college's governance page gives her title as Head of Adults, with responsibility for adult skills provision.

According to the governance page, Nichol began as a full-time plumbing learner before progressing to a gas apprenticeship. She spent 11 years working as a gas engineer before returning to the college as an onsite gas assessor.

Gill said he was assessing on site for her employer when he met her again, and told her LCB was recruiting on-site assessors. The college said that as a curriculum manager she went on to raise adult achievement rates from 58.6% to 89.8%.

The governance page lists Nichol as appointed a Staff Governor in 2026, representing support and non-academic staff. The board has up to 20 members including the Principal/CEO, with two staff governors and two student governors.

Nichol said: "Simon has always been, and will always be, an asset to LCB."

The college

LCB describes itself as the UK's only specialist further education college focused solely on construction and the built environment. Ofsted records it as a General Further Education and Tertiary provider at North Street, Leeds. The regulator's most recent full inspection, on 5 March 2024, gave an overall outcome of Requires Improvement.

The college is expanding. It submitted a planning application to Leeds City Council in October 2026 for a new Construction Technical Excellence College (CTEC) training building. CTECs are specialist further education providers funded by the UK government to address construction skills shortages, LCB said.

The college said the Chancellor pledged £15m in the Budget to support the opening of the CTEC building, and that the funding would let it open its campus to more than 2,000 new learners. Construction is expected to start early in 2027 and finish in time for the autumn 2028 intake.