Two day safety course all wrong (1 Viewer)

graham

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What do you think about this two day safety course that lets the site boss are the safety man tell us how to do our job are even condem our jobs if you ask me its a joke. E.G I put a job up on a site only two lifts,at one end there's a house at the other there's a wall we had a few jacks with us so we put them in the ledgers then jacked them up job done but the next thing we no is the site safety man who has been on this two day scaffolding course has condemned our job for not having a sway brace on the scaffold well for me it says it all about the course how can they fit 3 years into two days its not about safety its about money
 
Couldnt agree more mate,there is nothing worse than a snotty nosed kid coming out of an office with his pocket sized scaffold guide trying to tell how to do your job.
:evil:
 
safety course

:mad:I find it annoying to mate ,could we go on a 2 day safety health and safety course and tell them there doing there job wrong some how dont think so
 
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Who are these Day and a Dinner Scaffs !!!

Seems like every man and his dog is a Scaffolding Expert---I have had quite a few toe to toe exchanges of opinion with these day and a dinner self appointed Scaffold Auditors :mad:.

Surely, two days cannot impart sufficient Technical Knowledge or Practical Experience for these people to identify both the overt and covert Breaches of Statutory Requirements, B.S. Standards, T.G.20:08 recommendations and In-house Procedures and Practices. The observation of patent defects or omit ions on a Scaffold Structure are comparatively easy to rectify, however it is the covert Breaches that require a more rigorous inspection and that requires more that a two day Course. A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING.

Yet another example of a money spinning enterprise.

If the Scaffolders follow the Safe Systems of Work, Method Statements, Safety Management Strategies and Procedures, as all Scaffs do anyway ;)---there is no need to be accosted my these imposters.

Next time I get pulled up from one of these Office Wallers, I swear, I'll burst him.
 
garry i had one in the job in kent on the lng job , we had a russian safety officer who done a 2 day course and was telling us how to put scaffold up he was a total knobhead:mad:
 
Michael

I am all in favour of establishing a maintaining an Effective and Efficient Safety Culture---HOWEVER, The Principal Contractor is using HIS employees to Monitor the Scaffolding Sub-Contractors Duty of Care and Statutory requirements. This is a one sided and indeed, a BIAS regime. The use of 3 rd Party Non Bias Safety Management Orginisation staffed with COMPETANT and CAPABLE Personnel drawn from the Scaffolding Industry would give a balanced and actuate perspective to the day to day Scaffolding Operations.

Let us not forget to question;

WHO sanctioned these Courses
WHO delivers these Courses
WHO benefits, Fiscaly from these Courses
Who is Liable, if a Scaffolders Decision is counter manned, and an incident occurs. i.e. partial and or catastrophic collapse.

There are many questions too numerouse to mention, however, the Forum may expand on the above list if they wish ;)

We are supporting a myriad of people and Orginisation, i.e. H&S, Course Providers, ect, ect---
 
Garry,

Well said mate! You are right about this being yet another money spinner.
I think they really need to be separating this Scaffolding Inspection course from Scaffolding Awareness courses. I lead a team of Offshore CITB/CISRS Scaffolding Inspectors out here in Nigeria, so myself and the lads all did this course as oil companies overseas crave training certificates.

I must admit the 2 day Advanced Scaffolding Inspection course was a good refresher and yet another recognized certificate on the old CV. However, when I took mine 3 years ago, there were only 5 Scaffolders out of a class of 9. I remember 1 was a Bricky and 1 owned his own building company. The others I forget? Ridiculous when you think about it really. Could you image the outcome of a certificate like this in the wrong hands, potentially catastrophic if you think about it..?

I would have thought in this day and age of the safety culture that the Advanced Scaffolding inspection course would be for Qualified CISRS card holders only and there be a 'Scaffold Awareness' course for the likes of Site Management, HSE etc etc.

I've had my whinge!

Cheers,
Phil.
 
Paddy M8

It was good to hear from you again---looking forward to your input and comments

Garry...

---------- Post added at 11:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 PM ----------

Phil

I conduct 3rd Party Statutory Scaffold Inspections and Commissioning of Special Structures in Tube and Fittings.

Part of the Loss Prevention Strategy and Inspection regime involves random Safety Surveys to establish compliance to B.S. 1139 Torque Values allocated to Component Parts. After collation and analyzing the Data it is found that approximately 33% of the Components selected for survey we either over or under Torqued. :eek:

Question: Is your Inspection Department conducting such Safety Surveys and if so, are you at liberty to divulge your findings ?.

Are you allied to the Escravos GtL Project ?.

Garry...
 
courses

phil and garry, thanks for your input on various subjects,you are both very well informed, trained and interested in your living, which is a credit, as its easy take your foot off the pedal when you have been doing it a few years and just looking at it as well it pays the bills.i am an advanced scaffolder who has been doing it over 25 years, and still find guys that can teach you a new trick. but i agree with all the safety comments ,about the wrong people doing courses, i as a scaff could not do an electrical awareness course and then be able to go and preach to electricians.i am doing a few courses soon. the advanced scaff inspection in feb, and estimating and tendering in march, and hope fully the supervisers course in april. very expensive but want to get as many tickets under my belt as possible,will post how i get on and what the courses are like if any one is interested. am 50 in march and the old cilla is starting to play up. keep on posting as i am sure there are a lot of guys taking it all on board and also picking your brains.thanks again to all posters.
 
I completed the 2 day advanced inspection course a couple of months ago,due to the company i work for supplying a lot of scaffolds for the MOD.There were 9 people on the course,and i was the only scaff,one person was a saftey rep on there behalf,and the rest were people who worked in the offices who never even venture onto any worksites.These people were content to do the course because once they achieved the cert there wages go up slightly,this practise applies to every type of course they complete.Bloody crackers if you ask me,why not just limit the courses to those who are directly involved in it,just another moneyspinner......
 
Hi Garry,

Pleasure to meet you mate. I work directly for one of the oil majors and our business is divided into two. There is the Loss Prevention side that deals with scaffolding access for Operations and maintenance, then there is the OPG (Offshore Projects Group), who I work for that deals with all construction, hook-up, fabrication, restoration and installation.

I arrived here just under 2 years ago and have had to set up operation from scratch basically, with the help of my team. At OPG we are based offshore on a full time basis and provide technical advice, supervision, inspection and Scaffolder training. I have managed to convince our management to replace most of the local materials they were using with 2 huge orders from Prescos & George Roberts (keep the flag flying eh!).

As for Safety survey and callibrations, that is governed by our Loss Prevention, SHE's Dept and development side. However, I've no problem divulging as it is material that is not manufactured by my company etc. I would appreciate any info you have yourself. I will PM you with my contact details.

I am based in bandit country out in the Niger Delta. We have 96 platforms including satellites.

Cheers,
Phil.

---------- Post added at 08:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 PM ----------

Milwall,

You're very welcome mate. You're doing the right thing if the old Cilla's playing up. It is a costly business upgrading yourself, but you're investing in yourself so money well spent really.

Two of my Inspectors are in their 50's and they run rings around this lot out here! Inspection I think, is one of the best avenues to go down if you want to keep a 'technical' hand in the industry. With Supervision, especially Contract Supervision you are trained really to disassociate yourself from the lads. Well basically you will have no choice anyway when you signing time sheets and given a shoe-string budget to work on. It gets harder and harder for Contracts Supervisors & Managers now with the ever changing safety and working at height regs. I've done it myself on and off and have the utmost respect for CS's & CM's because it's one of the most difficult jobs I've ever done.

The very best of luck in whatever avenue you wish to pursue.

Cheers,
Phil.
 
Pack it in Phil your giving me a big head (The one on my shoulders!!)

Any news of your 3 missing collegues? Has the ransom be paid yet? Or are we expecting to see a few bodies in the South Atlantic in the next few days?
 
PW me old mukka,

We've heard nothing out here? I think they were Shell guys on the way to a power plant. There were 3 Brits and 1 Colombian (Reuters). It's a crying shame really because M.E.N.D, the local militant faction are on a 'supposed' amnesty with the Nigerian government, but the President has been seriously ill and out of the country for 50 odd days now so the proverbial cat is away, so to speak!

I really hope they all get released unharmed as soon as possible.

'Just when you think it's all over......!?'

Cheers,
Phil.
 
phil, as you may have read elsewhere in this forum i have recently returned from australia after an unsuccessful stint, i was on a promise of two jobs offshore which, due to the credit crunch, went belly up, i have my bosiet offshore tickets and universal medical,rope access level 1, advanced scaffolders ticket, i am doing three courses up to end of april, which hopefully i will pass, advanced scaffold inspection, estimating and tendering, and scaffold supervisers course, what is the route i would have to follow to get a job in your field of expertise,not asking for a job, picking brains if that is ok with you, with all due respect, as they say nothing ventured, nothing gained!
 
millwall

A very impressive Portfolio of Credentials---demonstrates a dedicated degree of commitment indeed---add a NEBOSH accreditation to your already extensive Remit and you will have the Royal Flush hand M8---If I were in the Business of Head Hunting I would be knocking on your door, passé, passé.

Garry...
 
Milwall,

That's what all these forums are all about mate, Information and guidance. Long gone are the days of 'a bloke down the pub says....' God bless the internet eh!
I've been awaiting a decent scaff forum, I used to hang around in rope access training, rope access jobs and rope access equipment suppliers. Also covering rigging, inspection and ndt the dopes on ropes forum, the moderator used to be an absolute hive of information for all the new techys that were starting out.

You are certainly going the right way about getting into the O&G industry by partaking in those qualifications. It also shows willing when you're prepared to finance yourself and it's all good investment.

I am by no means a North Sea Tiger, I am a believer that heli-decks were designed for sun bathing on, lol..! The best way to get into the game is first to register with the online O&G sites such as OilCareers - The Recruitment site for the Worldwide Oil and Gas Industry and Oil and Gas Jobs | Oil and Gas Recruitment they are both free to join. You basically load up your CV, a brief on yourself and watch your email inbox start to fill up with job offers. It's also worth registering with agencies such as Brunel, CCL Global,NES Global, Intec (UK) Ltd. Let the agents do all the work for you. They earn an absolute fortune out of people like myself.

Sorry to here about the Aussie job. They are still supposed to be going ahead with the ExxonMobil LNG project out there which will be the biggest platform in the world and will be supplying China with gas.

There is work in Angola and PNG (Papua New Guinea) at the moment.Not paradise but it's a good start. Nigeria is pretty unstable at the moment due to some Government upheaval issues, so it's not the best of places to be!

Keep racking up them tickets as your best investment is yourself!

Cheers,
Phil.
 
courses

garry- thanks once again for some great feed back, and i will certainly look at the nebosh qualification. and its true about self investment, which is what i tell all the young guys, but its easier said than done, its a small fortune to most people let alone young blokes, you have to feel sorry for them,they cant afford to pay it and suffer two weeks on course unpaid,and the amount of companies willing to invest in them are far and few. i dont know what the answer is, but maybe it is another ball for us all to throw around,
phil-thanks for your great reply, i am already on oil-careers and rigzone and rigg-access,will certainly be emailling a few companies as soon as i get theses courses behind me,rigg-access was recently looking for rope access scaffolders.also why we are on the subject of rope access are you senior guys aware that is being brought under our umbrella, and was in last years citb prospectus,but when i rang they were totally unprepared and couldnt offer the course,i have a bit more to say about this subject and how it could affect us but am waffling at the moment, but if anyone is interested to here just say.
 
millwall

Yet again we seem to be on parralled thinking---Three Years ago I was involved with preliminary takes with the Government (Blair was in Power at the time) Offshore Union Regional Secretary Amicus Graham Tran ( Deceased ) and Nasc, the Proposal Graham Tran and I tabled was to establish an Offshore Academy Based in Aberdeen. Graham was to deal with the Black Trades and I was to establish a Faculty of Scaffolding, Rigging and Rope access---the talks were going well until Blair handed power over to Brown---Brown with drew the Government Backing and the Academy sank with out trace...HOWEVER---the coupling of the three Disapline are coming to fruition, and I cannot help wonder if the Offshore Union Initiative to establish an Offshore Academy was shanghaied.

As for the NEBOSH Courses, it may not be as expensive as you may think---if you get the Course work curriculum, past papers, ect...you only need to pay the fee to sit the exam---I am sure that some of our Forum Member has such material at hand. So it would not cost you a fortune to Study for a NEBOSH exam.

I would be interested in your thoughts regarding incorporation Rope Access Techs in to our Scaffolding Industry ?.

Safespan Crew= 1 Scaffolder,1 Rigger, 1 Rope Access Tech

Garry...
 
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