SCORES of attendees had the opportunity to explore the facilities and witness live demonstrations at the recent Sibbald Training open day event, held at the firm’s Blackridge HQ in West Lothian.
Designed to give a flavour of the circa 200 courses the company offers, the day showcased training in applications ranging from confined spaces and rescues at height through to lifting equipment and ROTO telehandlers.
Sibbald Training was joined on the day by partners from HSS Training and SpanSet, who support the business in offering specialist training in fields such as working at height and safe access.
Director John Sibbald told Project Plant that one of the driving forces behind the event was a desire to highlight the breadth of qualifications available. The purpose-built training facility was opened in 2009 and, through continuous investment, has grown dramatically since then. Today, the site extends to 18 acres and boasts 19 classrooms. At peak times, an average of between 70 and 100 trainees pass through the centre each day.
“The centre has grown through industry demand,” John explained. “Health and safety requirements are always on the increase and always at the forefront of people’s minds. The other thing that’s grown this business is that back in the early 2000s, we had quite a small product line, specialising in the plant side of things and elements of health and safety.
“Over the last 10-15 years, we have developed a lot more products and moved into new sectors. That is to lessen the risk as a business and make sure all our eggs aren’t in one basket. Although we’re seen as a construction training business, our customer base now crosses off multiple sectors whether it be utilities, engineering companies, manufacturing businesses, and warehouse distribution.
“The partnership agreements in the last 5-6 years have allowed us to start delivering more specialist training such as working at height and rescuing at height. We identified our customers have demand for it but we’re not the experts at it, so we’ve partnered up with experts to be able to deliver that. These partnership agreements work really well because we control the quality as it’s delivered here within the centre, and gives them a central location in Scotland, so strategically the site location is very good.”
The open day event was primarily aimed at decision makers including training coordinators, health and safety managers, and procurement personnel. John added that such people often don’t go on the courses themselves, so it was a welcome chance for them to see exactly where they’re sending their trainees to.
Sibbald prides itself on offering industry-leading facilities and training. In a market where decision makers often receive what they think are like-for-like quotes, John added that the hope is that once they see the quality on offer at Sibbald, they will be able to make better-informed decisions about where to send their recruits.
“A large percentage of what we deliver on a day-to-day basis has a large practical element,” he said. “We do online training; we do virtual training; we do e-learning. We can do all of that, however the core of our business is still the muddy boots. It’s the people who are digging the holes; it’s the people who are on the ground. We will never come away from that practical element. It’s crucial to show that we have the facilities to be able to deliver these practical elements in a safe and controlled environment, but also a realistic environment. This is a working site.”
The day itself included demonstrations of six distinct training scenarios. One was concerned with powered access, mainly around IPAF and how you would carry out a rescue with a scissor and boom. A further scenario involved working at height. There was also a demonstration on confined space training, utilising Sibbald’s 55 metres of underground tunnels. There was a section on telehandlers, including the Merlo ROTO telehandler. The final two scenarios were roads & street works and lifting.
Attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and speak to instructors in more depth. John described the current training landscape as ‘hugely competitive’. One way Sibbald aims to stand out is by being something of a one-stop-shop for most of the training requirements a company has.
“We’re always very honest,” John added. “We’re not a training broker. We have strategic partnerships. We don’t broker training to companies that we don’t know the standard and quality, because we’re really cautious of making sure that we control the quality in what we deliver. That’s crucial to us.
“A big part of our offering as well is the whole back end of the training aspect. The training is one thing, but the whole record keeping and booking system (is another). We’ve launched a new CRM system this year and within that, customers have got client logins so they can look back at all their trainees’ training records, they can look at anything they’ve already got booked in, and they can download joining instructions for events. It has taken a lot of years to get to that level.”
The latest courses on offer including ROTO telehandlers – both for novices and individuals transitioning from other telehandler models. Sibbald also recently invested in its own lorry to facilitate in-house lorry loader training. That is currently done under NPORS and CPCS, with ALLMI accreditation due to be added in the near future.
The business is also heavily involved in the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) Modern Apprenticeship Fund, which provides funding to support apprentices through plant qualifications and some lifting qualifications.
As a former president of the Scottish Plant Owners Association (SPOA), John is acutely aware of the skills shortages that businesses across the construction and plant sectors are grappling with. He cited recent rises to the minimum wage and National Insurance contributions as making the cost of hiring an apprentice even greater. Anecdotally, he has spoken to companies that are either not going to hire an apprentice this year or will be recruiting fewer than normal.
Events like the Sibbald open day will hopefully go some way to raising skill levels across the sector.
“We can encourage employers to send trainees to get quality training to the right standard,” John added. “We’ve got CITB here today giving support on grant funding. We’ve got SDS here who can give information on Modern Apprenticeships. This event will hopefully help with that. Even if it’s not at this event, anyone can phone us for that information. If we can’t give them it, we’ll point them in the right direction.
“It’s really important that people don’t just see a cost and a price tag, and that they understand the full route and the support they will get on top of that. It’s crucial that employers take on young people. I think there’s a massive challenge in front of us. The government wants to build 1.5 million homes, but we just don’t have the people to do it – and that gap’s widening every year unfortunately.”
• For more information about the courses on offer at Sibbald, visit www.sibbaldtraining.com
