21.11.2007

ALLMI agreement with CPCS

The Association of Lorry Loader Manufacturers and Installers (ALLMI) has reached an agreement with the UK’s ConstructionSkills training organisation/company that allows a holder of an ALLMI operators licence to apply for a blue CPCS competence card without further training.

All an ALLMI card holder need do is to take or have taken the Construction Skills touch screen test within the past two years and to complete the application form.

The agreement applies to anyone holding an ALLMI card for either the Lorry Loader or Slinger/Signaller category or both.

The categories stated on the card issued by CPCS will match those stated on the ALLMI card (i.e. Lorry Loader and / or Slinger/Signaller), with the expiry date for the CPCS card being five years from the date of issue.

ALLMI cardholders wanting to apply for CPCS cards must complete the appropriate application form, which can be obtained from their ALLMI training provider or ALLMI headquarters. The cost is £20.

The CPCS card system works in two stages, the first stage requires the operator to undergo initial training, including the health & safety test, in order to gain a temporary red, ‘Trained Operator Card’. Once the red card has been issued, the operator must then progress to the blue, Competence Card as the red card is not renewable.

In order to obtain the blue card involves completing the appropriate National Vocational Qualification in addition to logging 300 hours of machine operation.

ALLMI executive director, Tom Wakefield, said ‘we’re very pleased that our discussions with CPCS have reached their conclusion, and that this agreement is now in place for ALLMI operators requiring access to the CPCS card.

“I would like to stress, however, that this process does not affect ALLMI Instructors, nor does it change the delivery of the ALLMI Training scheme in any way whatsoever” .

The CPCS card is required on a number of construction sites managed by members of the UK’s Major Contractors Group.

Vertikal Comment

This agreement has taken years to reach this stage thanks to the bureaucratic nature of the ConstructionSkills organisation, a virtual monopoly set up in collusion with a handful of the UK’s largest contractors that belong to the Major Contractors Group.

The initial idea was to establish a training scheme and proof of training that was secure and universal, a very worthwhile aim. However somewhere along the way the idea was high jacked by those seeing the monetary potential of such a programme.

As a result instead of focusing in taking the greatest number of operators to the highest skill levels possible, it has become more bureaucratic than the Indian civil service as it concentrates on retaining control, seemingly in order to maintain the largest share of the revenues generated from operator training.

It could have been so different if it had concentrated on setting standards and encouraging industry card schemes such as ALLMI or IPAF, awarding the CPCS approval and logo for those that meet tough criteria for training quality and security.

Even now this agreement with ALLMI, which allows those operators who need to work on MCG sites to gain a blue CPCS card without undergoing further, totally unwarranted and in some cases, substandard, training is only temporary.

The CPCS wants to roll back this deal in a years time with an ALLMI card only qualifying for a red card. Thus leading to what it appears to have wanted all along – to monopolise the training for MCG sites.

It is about time that this monopoly, that puts a break on good operator training is broken up, possibly being replaced with an industry agreed testing programme along the lines of the driving test.