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At a time of increasing change within our industry, training and education is essential if you want to keep abreast of the latest technology, design and installation techniques.

Gateshead College students are helping a social housing maintenance company to build a brighter future.

Mears Group’s North East operation has taken on 11 new apprentices from the college across a wide range of disciplines.

Michael Rodgers and Connor Singh, both 17, have embarked on a maintenance operations apprenticeship while 21-year-old Adam Henderson has chosen a plumbing apprenticeship. They have been joined by apprentice plasterer Aaron Dalton, 19, and 16-year-old Thomas Humby, an apprentice painter and decorator.

The Steeplejack and Lightning Protection Training Group (SLPTG) Apprentice Awards which recognise the achievements of apprentices in the sector were presented at the National Construction College (NCC) - East on 12 December 2013. There were 12 awards chosen by NCC instructors, including Best Academic Achievement, Best Technical Application (Lightning Conductor) and Highest Attention to Safety (Steeplejack), for those apprentices who excelled during their 2-year training.

More than 90 NASC member company employees from over 30 NASC firms will complete the CISRS SSPTS (Systems Scaffold Product Training Scheme) training in the final quarter of this year – fully funded, thanks to additional financial support obtained by the ASITO (Access and Scaffolding Industry Training Organisation via CITB (Construction Industry Training Board), in conjunction with CISRS.

A sum of £25,000 has been obtained for the Systems Scaffold Product Training Scheme, run by the CISRS (Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme). This budget has been split over the five NASC regions  – Scotland and Northern Ireland, Northern and North Wales, Midlands, South West and South Wales and London and South East – boosting training numbers for System scaffolding across the UK.

The UK Asbestos Training Association Ltd (UKATA) has offered its support to a new ‘Asbestos Behaviour Change’ campaign from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which aims to raise awareness of issues relating to asbestos amongst trades people and the general public. 

A new technical college providing young people with vital engineering and construction skills was opened by HRH The Duke of York, KG today. He was joined by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Cllr Chris Roberts at the University Technical College, Royal Borough of Greenwich,  where 14-18 year olds can gain vocational qualifications to boost their job prospects and meet a growing demand for technically trained workers. 

With a quarter of London's 16-24 year olds unemployed and the jobs market becoming increasingly competitive, it is more important than ever for young people to have the skills they need to secure employment and forge a career.

RICS has developed the first BIM Manager Certification in response to industry need for a universal standard on which to assess the skills of construction professionals in using BIM (Building Information Modelling).

As BIM continues to dominate processes across the built environment, employers and clients are increasingly struggling to find industry accepted criteria on which to base knowledge of practitioners’ BIM skills. Likewise, BIM competent professionals lack a single indicator that will demonstrate their abilities to the sector. This has resulted in many different assessment methods being used across the industry, with little consistency and reliability for both companies and individuals.

Employers in the construction and maintenance sectors are now being offered innovative training partnerships to safeguard employees who work in or around water.

Most people in the construction industry relate the term Health and Safety to hazards such as Asbestos, Manual Handling, Machinery Work equipment and Working at Heights.

CISRS Training Manager, Dave Mosley recently attended the annual Scaffolding Skills Challenge day at Newcastle College – to congratulate the young scaffolding apprentices. 

The annual event was sponsored by NASC members, Pyeroy and saw Newcastle College-trained Year 1 and 2 scaffolding apprentices compete in front of an audience of North East employers to see who could erect the safest and most technically accurate structure.

NASC member apprentices from across the UK have been recognised in the recent National Construction College (NCC) Scaffolding Apprenticeship Awards – with over 50% (13 of 24) of the 1st and 2nd year nominees across the whole of the UK.

NASC apprentices did particularly well north of the Border at NCC Scotland – with 83% (five from six) of the nomination places going to NASC apprentices: Maritime Scaffolding of Aberdeen had two of their employees – Kyle Norwood and Richard Moir – receiving runner-up prizes in the 1st Year Scaffolding Apprentice category. And Aaron Tracey (Interserve Industrial Services) and George Thomson (Cape Industrial Services) also both received Year Two Runner Up prizes.