Top Access Tower Qualification Gets New Title and Revamp

PASMA HAS REVAMPED its training scheme for complex aluminium access towers, creating a new title for those who complete the challenging programme – Access Tower Specialists.

The specialists will be qualified to build all types of tower, including bespoke structures designed to meet the needs of a site, however tall, wide or awkward it may be.

The course delivers the highest qualification available for access towers, aimed at those with considerable experience. Those who qualify have already trained on all standard configuration towers and the Access Tower Specialist course is the nest stage.

Those who pass the theory and practical assessments are qualified to use prefabricated aluminium components in complex configurations that can be constructed to much greater heights than standard towers.

Hire & Assembly

The structures are typically offered as ‘hire & assembly’ which covers equipment rental, consultation, specification, design, assembly and dismantling.

Working closely with tower manufacturers, Access Tower Specialists can:

• Plan the build
• Select safe equipment
• Follow design drawings
• Assemble and dismantle
• Make engineer-approved alterations
• Tie structures into buildings
• Inspect towers
• Collate all paperwork
• Conduct safe handovers

Competent to deliver all standard configuration towers – mobile access towers, cantilever towers, towers on bridges, tower on stairways, large deck towers and linked towers – the bespoke, advanced structures showcase the specialists’ abilities.

These towers can go tall and wide, around, over and under obstacles, give access to multiple levels or stairwells, provide large (and mobile) deck areas, squeeze into tight spaces and be adapted as requirements evolve. Doing all of this with lightweight, prefabricated aluminium components is a specialist skill that is not taught anywhere else.

Access Tower Specialist course

Pete Harley, Chair of PASMA’s Hire & Assembly Committee and owner of STS Access,  said: “For too many years, complex towers were something you learned on the job. There was no one checking that the knowledge being handed down was correct, consistent or comprehensive and there was no way for workers to prove their competence. The Access Tower Specialist course from PASMA, the recognised subject matter experts, has changed all that.”

“Nowadays, when an experienced tower operative is ready to learn the advanced skills they need to work with bespoke structures safely, there’s a formal training programme for that, and they’ll get an Access Tower Specialist PASMA card at the end of it. I’ve seen what a huge help this has been to safety professionals and site managers who need a reliable way to check the competence of workers on their projects.”

The relaunched course will be delivered by PASMA at the Test & Research Centre for work at height testing and training in Cambridgeshire. PASMA recently invested close to £1M in purchasing and equipping this facility, with a key requirement being a 25-metre clear headroom where tall, complex tower structures can be built.

The training scheme is just one of the developments led by PASMA and its members in recent years that have driven up standards and provides a means of identifying skilled and competent workers in the hire & assembly sector.

PASMA has a dedicated Hire & Assembly membership category and recommends its members as preferred suppliers for complex aluminium access structures, guaranteeing an appropriately skilled and qualified workforce.