In 2012 a record breaking 60,000 candidates attended and successfully completed a tower training course at an approved PASMA training centre. This compares with 50,000 for the previous year – an increase of 20 per cent – and reflects the major contribution that the Association and its members are now making to the safety, competence and productivity of tower users in the work at height sector.
Height training has become vital to a number of industries due to the status of work at height as biggest killer in the British workplace. Only this week Middlesbrough firm Silk Road Foods was fined over £12,500 after a 13ft fall left one of their employees with injuries which have prevented him from returning to work.
The fall was the result of “inadequate risk assessments and unsafe scaffolding”, precisely the kinds of dangerous oversights PASMA training is put in place to prevent. Since PASMA first introduced its Towers for Users course back in 2005, it has successfully trained more than 350,000 operatives to avoid such dangers through the safe and effective use of this versatile and increasingly popular piece of access equipment.
The PASMA Photo Card represents demonstrable proof that the holder has been trained to best practice standards based on the latest legislation and most current guidance, which, importantly, PASMA plays a lead role in developing. As a result, the Photo Card is now the only proof of competence accepted by many site managers and health and safety professionals.
The training courses are delivered across the UK and Ireland through a network of some 400 approved training centres. A team of qualified and experienced auditors ensures that the high standards associated with PASMA training are maintained at all times.
PASMA’s Director of Training, Stuart Hopkins, said: “By collating and distilling the collective knowledge and expertise of PASMA members – people who know and understand the equipment and speak the language – we have developed a course that is now recognised as the definitive benchmark for competency when working with towers. Not only in the UK, but increasingly overseas.
“Our input is increasingly being sought by overseas government agencies and trade bodies keen to improve safety and performance standards in their own respective work at height industries. We are also receiving a growing number of enquiries from overseas companies wanting to deliver professional PASMA training – such is the standing and reputation of the courses we provide.”
Courses on offer for 2013 include Towers for Users, Work at Height Essentials, Low Level Access, and AGRs for Towers for Users – a course designed specifically for users wanting to acquire additional knowledge and understanding when using Advance Guardrail mobile towers on site. New courses for 2013 include Towers for Managers, Towers for Riggers and Towers on Stairs.
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