A-Plant – Britain’s biggest plant, tool and equipment hire company – is celebrating after scooping a prestigious international award.
The company beat off stiff competition from nominees in China, Brazil and The Netherlands, to take home the title of ‘IPAF Training Centre of the Year’ at the International Awards for Powered Access.
Jointly organised by Access International and the International Powered Access Federation, the awards celebrate best practice and excellence in the powered access industry.
A-Plant’s Director of Risk Management, Douglas McLuckie, says the company are thrilled to have won the award for the second time in five years.
He said: “We are delighted that the quality of our training has been recognised for a second time and a huge credit goes out to the Training Team for achieving such high standards.
“A-Plant Training has become firmly established as one of the leading specialist access training providers in the UK and we are proud of our growth, innovation and exceptional safety record.
Adding: “Improving industry safety through training is a long-term commitment for A-Plant and we will continue to enhance our training offering in a bid to drive the industry towards a zero accident rate.
“A huge credit goes out to the Training Team for achieving such high standards.”
To be nominated, A-Plant had to be able to demonstrate exceptional growth in trainee numbers, innovative solutions, raising awareness of safety, promoting its product or services, or moving into new markets over the last 12 months.
Douglas believes it was the company’s investment in Training Centre’s of Excellence and variety of courses on offer that secured the win.
He explains: “Over the past 12 months we have delivered IPAF training to over 1,300 customers, both at A-Plant Training Centres of Excellence and customer sites.
“We have also continued to invest in our network of Training Centres of Excellence and in the last two years our training network has grown from 16 to 22 across the country – of which 14 are IPAF accredited.
He adds: “We now offer a total of 70 training courses to our customers and a large population are related to access training. Traditionally, many of our training customers have been in the construction industry, but we have branched out into other sectors such as the water industry, medical and health, processing and service sectors.
“New A-Plant Training Centres have recently been opened in Immingham and Rotherham and our primary Training Centre in Nottingham continues to be the hub from which our training team operates.”
This year’s glittering awards ceremony took place on Thursday 8th March 2018 at the Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel.