THE Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) has granted approval for delivery of a “critical” new plant apprenticeship scheme years in the making.
The Hire Controller (Plant, Tools and Equipment) Trailblazer Apprenticeship is the result of several years’ work by an employer-led Trailblazer Working Group.
The group determined that the apprenticeship was “critical” in order to attract new recruits to the construction plant industry, as well as upskilling existing staff, with hire controllers playing a key role in businesses by co-ordinating the hire of plant, tools and equipment to customers.
The Trailblazer Working Group was chaired by Kirsty Archbold-Laming, director of Southern Hoists, and consists of plant hirers across numerous employers from the hire and rental sector including general plant, access, cranes, rail plant, ground support, small plant and tools and concrete pumping.
The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has provided managerial and administrative support throughout the process. The International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) and the Hire Association Europe (HAE) have also been involved in the development of the apprenticeship.
Kirsty Archbold-Laming commented, “We’re extremely pleased after several years of hard work to get the final approval from the Institute of Apprenticeships. This new apprenticeship will be a major step in helping recruit the new staff that we need in our sector.”
The apprenticeship will seek to develop certain behaviours including forming positive relationships with customers, working both within a team and independently, developing a ‘health and safety first attitude’, being self-motivated to meet operational targets, remaining respectful of equality and diversity and remaining committed to continual personal and professional development.
In developing the standard for this occupation, the Working Group defined the required duties of a hire controller for the training syllabus which included the provision of technical information to customers in helping them select and use suitable equipment for the planned activities; ensuring the equipment being hired is compliant with health and safety requirements; completing contractual documentation at both on-hire and off-hire stages; processing payments including calculating hire and rental charges, damage charges, fraud prevention measures and insurance payments; and handling customer technical enquiries and complaints.
This apprenticeship has been set by the group at a level 2 and will take between 12-18 months to complete, with 20% of that time to be devoted to ‘off-the-job’ training.
The IfA has placed this Trailblazer in funding band 8 which equates to £5,000 that can be spent or claimed by employers (subject to current funding rules) for apprenticeship levy and non-levy paying organisations, in line with typical training costs supplied by training providers.
