Virtual excavator plants the seed for pioneering new training course

Blog by Simon Werkshagen – Head of Commercial Construction Training and Logistics Centre

Weston College’s Construction Training Centre (CTC) has been open for almost three months now and (touch wood!) everything has so far gone to plan.

Footfall from day one has been tremendous, with hundreds of industry workers making use of the new facilities for various practical and class-based training. (By the way, if you haven’t yet heard about the CTC, take a look at my previous two blogs here and here.)

Our scaffolding training, which is run in partnership with Simian, has proved hugely popular. We’ve also just been awarded Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS) accreditation for delivery of Level 1, 2 and Advanced Scaffolder courses. This means we can deliver an ever-expanding range of courses required for workers to gain these industry-standard cards and qualifications.

In terms of plant training, the centre’s also been accredited as an awarding body for widely recognised NPORS qualifications, and we’ll shortly be inspected by CPCS, which will – hopefully – lead to us being given accreditation to run those courses too. Following these approvals, plant operations training will be available from August – you can book your place now.

Aside from enabling us to provide industry-recognised courses, these accreditations also act as seals of approval for our new facility and help enhance its reputation among the wider construction industry.

On a similar theme, we’ve also been hosting weekly ‘business breakfasts’, which are essentially informal meetings with groups of employers and prospective learners. As well as allowing us show off the new centre, these events help us forge new partnerships with organisations and businesses operating in the construction industry and promote courses among employers.

With plant courses due to start, this area of training has been top of the agenda recently and, last month, myself and colleagues from our Weston-based partner, Plantforce, attended the PlantWorx trade show in Peterborough.

Aside from the dreadful weather it was an outstanding event, which enabled us to build contacts, and forge some, potentially, very exciting relationships.

As someone who has long been fascinated by the use of technology in plant operations, I was also thrilled to get the opportunity to try out an excavator training simulator.

And, as I used this impressive piece of equipment to perform various tasks around the virtual construction site, I realised that there’s a gap in the market for a new training course.

At present, you can take a basic excavator course and earn your beginners ‘ticket’ – or licence – the following week. However, this will not guarantee you to work on a ‘tier 1’ contract (directly for a client), which requires significantly more expertise in operating the equipment.

By providing simulated training after the basic course, we can bridge the gap that currently exists, by teaching people how to use the various pieces of technology that are required for higher level contracts.

To cut a long story short, our ‘Site-ready Operator’ course has now been finalised and due to be delivered in the centre’s new simulator suite.

If you’d like to find out more about the Construction Training Centre, visit www.contruction-training-centre.co.uk or please drop me an email (simon.werkshagen@weston.ac.uk) or give me a call on 01934 421266.