Sorry Bri, I'm going to dig in here (pun intended). Over the course of three days in 2016 - I can give you the dates if you want - at least 5 trainers lost their NPORS tickets for the reasons I've described. I witnessed it, the director of the training centre witnessed it, as did an NPORS Director, his training specialist and the editor of a well-known trade magazine; all of who were watching in increasing disbelief.
Like you, I've no axe to grind and, indeed, CPCS did finally show interest. At the time, however, it was acknowledged that it was not a requirement that a CPCS assessor needed to demonstrate practical competence on the machines that they were checking operators on. The now retired health and safety director of one of the big 5 contractors told me directly in a phone call that he actually preferred CPCS for this reason. His logic was that trainers train and assessors, well, assess; and it's best to keep the two disciplines separate to ensure no conflict of interest.
Robert
Not shooting the reporter here, Robert, as you are saying what you saw, but something must have happened between 2010, when I did the CPCS trainers course, and 2016. When I did it, to be an assessor you had to jump the same hoops as a trainer (minus the trainer training), part of which was a practical test on each category you wanted on your assessor’s or trainer’s ticket, and it isn’t a test you can pass if you can’t operate to a reasonable level. You had to be tested by a tester, but also there had to be a moderator present. Think that bit may have changed now. Whatever, all of CPCS operator, trainer, assessor/tester requirements are written out on their website, so there’s no ambiguity about what should have happened for these guys to be qualified, and certainly in earlier years there were no short cuts.
I can’t help thinking there’s more (or less) to this. Can’t understand why three guys who couldn’t operate decided to put themselves in the firing line like this. Because however you spin it NPORS don’t come out of it very well if if 3 out of 4 of their trainers/testers couldn’t operate, and they only discovered this at a high-profile event? Makes me wonder if they just made up some ordinary ticket holders to trainers and realised they’d shot themselves in the foot, but that’s speculation from a distance and no-one would be shouting if it was the case. NPORS should certainly have done a bit more Due diligence beforehand rather than shutting the stable door after the event. And if I’m reading correctly, these guys were there as NPORS assessors or trainers.
I’ll be the first to admit that I would be an embarrassment on a tiltrotator at this stage, but then I’m not going to be training or assessing anyone. But this whole saga does put meat behind Rory’s ideas, if it does nothing else, and I’ve got bloody writer’s cramp.
as usual ... lions led by donkeys
