Training Information

In the current climate of ever increasing insurance costs, personal injury claims, the HSE's war on falls from height and the UK Contractors Group strategy for a fully qualified workforce, the training of scaffolding operatives has never been more important. Unless scaffolding contractors follow NASC membership criteria and act responsibly they may find themselves in difficulty with one or all of the above.

Access and Scaffolding Industry Training Organisation (ASITO)

Construction is enjoying a continuing period of growth, which is causing problems in the recruitment and training of skilled operatives. This has huge implications for the NASC and ASITO.

ASITO is made up of representatives of the NASC, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS), employee representatives from TGWU and UCATT and the Construction Industry Joint Council (CIJC). The aim of the Group is to develop training to meet the needs of the industry.

In the last few years the industry has seen several changes within training including the introduction of S/NVQs, Health and Safety testing and card renewal, all of which have added to the quality of the CISRS scheme. Individual operatives who have attended courses have the benefit of proper recognition of their skills and abilities and are able to show that through training and assessment, they have achieved the standards recognised and desired by the industry.

The Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme

The CISRS has been running training courses through approved training providers for over 30 years. The days of "Grandfather Rights" have long since gone. The CISRS does however recognise the need to offer training and assessment courses for operatives of all ages and levels of experience. Through approved training providers (List of CISRS Approved Training Providers) courses can be found for all interested parties ranging from school leavers to operatives who have been in the industry for a number of years but have never held a valid qualification.

The CISRS intends to continue developing its scheme to reflect changes within construction. The Government is backing the fully qualified workforce initiative and in order to address this the CISRS offers a card for operatives at all levels - Labourer, Trainee, Basic and Advanced Scaffolder. The grade of the card reflects the holder's competence. The CISRS card should be the minimum requirement of clients prior to commencement of scaffolding work on their sites.

In order to ensure that the cardholder's Health and Safety knowledge is up to date they are required to renew their card every 5 years. If a scaffolder wishes to renew a card he must hold valid health and safety certification, which must have been attained within 2 years of the application.

In recent years there has been an increase in the use of proprietary scaffolding systems within the industry. From January 2004 the CISRS Parts 1, 2 and Advanced will include exercises using system scaffold. You can't beat the system! (PDF)

ASITO is currently developing a supervisors/managers course. This will be aimed at advanced scaffolders and charge hands who possess a great deal of craft expertise and knowledge but wish to receive training in areas such as estimating, health and safety at work, risk assessment, design, resource management etc.

Recruitment

The NASC through its involvement with ASITO continues to work closely with the CITB as it strives to improve the effectiveness of recruitment. The CITB has several objectives for recruitment, education and careers, which it hopes to implement over the next few years. These include reviewing and evaluating current work placement provision and developing work placements by 10%, increasing pupil participation in education and careers initiatives, increasing young people's awareness of career opportunities within construction and encouraging more adult recruits to supplement the limited pool of young entrants.

These initiatives will help to ease current recruitment shortages. In the meantime CISRS approved training providers offer youth and adult trainees the chance to receive the quality training that has seen its scaffold card become the benchmark qualification for the industry.


CISRS

For more information on CISRS including the location of your nearest training centre, please visit the CISRS website, www.cisrs.org.uk