final-report-of-the-advisory-committee-on-falsework-bragg-report - Flipbook - Page 83
300000 boys and girls leaving school each year receive
no training whatsoever from their employers. The
practices in the United Kingdom contrast sharply
with those of other countries in Western Europe. In
Germany about 80% of the jobs into which young
people go have some form of apprenticeship. A
national policy is required from the Manpower Services Commission to establish courses of training in
the long-term transferable skills and also to establish
the so-called "gateway" courses which provide young
people who have just left school with an insight into
the variety of jobs available. There-is certainly a need
to encourage young persons to enter the construction
industry and to want to be trained properly. Excellent
work in this direction is done by the Civil Engineering
College at Bircham Newton, under the auspices of
the Construction Industry Training Board. The
residential course at the college aims to train promising school leavers and others in the technology of
the construction industry in order to fit them for
skilled jobs and later on for first line supervisory
appointments. We recommend that the course should
continue to receive support from the TSA and that
numbers be expanded if possible. The City and Guilds
courses which cater for technical and craft training
are of high quality but may need reappraisal in the
light of our comments to ensure that sufficient emphasis is put on safety.
mtssion who have responsibility for ensuring that
employers fulfil their statutory obligations in instruction, training, supervision etc. The executive of that
Commission has its own sections specialising in safety
training and the technical problems of the construction
industry. The Commission also controls the activities
of its inspectors. We recommend that the Health and
Safety at Work Executive should be made the approving
body for the harmonising of all falsework training
courses. We consider that course approval should be
given on a two-yearly basis only. At the expiration
of that period, the results should be studied and
modifications made to improve the courses. Particular
courses might be given a designation which would
indicate the stage of development which they have
reached. Initially, all courses would be classified (a)
but, as modifications were made, they would become
(b), (c), (d) etc. In this way it would be possible to tell
which stage of course any individual had attended.
If it were later considered that a course had reached
a stage of development where those who had attended
earlier stages could benefit from updating, it would be
a simple matter to identify those requiring refesher
training. This procedure would allow for different
rates of development of different courses.
CITB facilities
Course standards
We were invited as a committee to visit the residential
The evidence which we have received indicates a training centre at Bircham Newton in Norfolk. This
wide variation in standard of such training courses as was originally designed as a training centre for plant
already exist. There are differences in content, in the operators and has extended its range of training
standards aimed at, and in the results achieved. An activities under the influence of the Construction
employer is therefore uncertain about the standard Industry Training Board. During our visit we discussed
which a trainee has reached and little reliance can be with the tutorial staff the prospects for establishing a
placed upon the mere fact that a person has attended range of practical and theoretical falsework courses
a course. It is for this reason that we have given which could incorporate our concepts of safety. The
detailed syllabi for some suggested courses following facilities for practical work at the centre appeared to
our discussions with the Construction Industry Train- be unrivalled: there is plenty of space, some of it
ing Board and the management of the Bircham Newton under cover in former aircraft hangers. There is
Training Centre. It is essential for each course to plenty of equipment including conventional tubes and
have a clear objective, a consistent philosophy and a fittings as well as proprietary falsework elements.
syllabus adapted to the needs of the people being These give every opportunity for sound practical
taught. The teaching and learning hours need to be demonstrations and staff are well-qualified to give
fixed. The syllabus should be regulated by a central instruction on site and in the classroom. We were
body having experience both in training and con- also impressed with the residential accommodation
struction technology. Any arrangements for regulation and catering arrangements which make the centre
must allow for reappraisal and revalidation to take entirely self-contained. We invited the programme
account of new techniques and improved styles of organisers to devise courses which would provide the
teaching. It is of vital importance that sufficient free- right balance of technical and theoretical content for
dom is given for innovation and development.
each of the classes of student who could benefit from
this custom-built training. The committee discussed
We consider that any proposed course should be the training scheme proposals at some length and the
submitted to the Health and Safety at Work Com- schemes in the Appendix are a result.
84
