Five Year 11 pupils from XP Gateshead have completed a free two-day scaffolding awareness pilot run by W@H Safety Solutions and Dave Mosley Associates.
The programme combined classroom learning with practical exercises, giving pupils interested in trade apprenticeships a chance to try basic scaffolding tasks.
It was organised as part of National Scaffolding Week, which ran from 5 to 9 October. W@H Safety Solutions made its training facility available exclusively to the school group for the two days.
All five pupils had already told school staff they were interested in becoming trade apprentices, with two specifically wanting to qualify as scaffolders.
Hands-on introduction
Dave Mosley delivered the course, which began with a tour of the training facility before moving on to component identification, health and safety, risk assessments and method statements.
Pupils also covered manual handling, knot tying and basic scaffold inspection and fault finding. They built several simple scaffold structures and completed a theory test.
Mosley said the pupils and their teaching coach, Mr Macdonald, had been keen to get involved.
“You could see that the pupils and the teaching coach Mr Macdonald really enjoyed the programme, everyone wanted to get involved and take the lead in building the jobs,” he said.
He said the experience also introduced the group to everyday expectations at work, including arriving on time, following instructions and working as a team.
“Several of them are now considering scaffolding as a career choice and will be supported all the way if they choose to do so.”
Mosley said the risk assessments and logistics involved in arranging the course for school pupils had been considerable. XP Gateshead and XP Trust supported their participation, while the Scaffolding Association and OddBalls supplied items for goody bags.
The organisers are looking to repeat the programme, according to Mosley.
