// News: Covid-19
TRAINING GROUND Since the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic hit the UK shores in late March, the UK’s construction industry has led the way in terms of attempting to operate with a degree of normality. Here we speak with Simon Hughes and Dave Randles, Directors of SIMIAN, the country’s largest privately owned scaffolding training provider, about the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic and the outlook for scaffolding training in the UK ❖ We asked Simon and Dave about the early stages of the pandemic and how Simian reacted to the initial lockdown. Dave Randles said: “At the outset of the pandemic, Simian adopted a policy of compliance with government recommendations and as such, we took the unilateral decision to close our training centres with effect from Friday 20 March. We were the first centre to proactively do that and as an unfortunate consequence, the majority of training delivery staff were furloughed, using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – leaving a skeleton resource to hold the fort. “We were very conscious that we had learners who were part way through training programmes and these included scaffolding apprentices and those taking the traditional route of scaffolding training. We knew that the lockdown could last a while, so we wanted to be innovative and ensure that our learners remained engaged, even though our centres were closed. As a result, the team members who remained in work put a significant amount of time and effort into developing a range of online and remote training initiatives, using technology that
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had, up to that point, been largely untapped by the scaffolding industry. This included webinar and ‘virtual classroom’ products such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom – both of which are now commonplace in almost every UK workplace and very many homes.” Simon Hughes said: “As those who have attended a CISRS scaffolding training course will know, the skills and behaviours required for scaffolding cannot be taught or assessed solely in a classroom or through a computer screen. For this reason, our virtual sessions were intended to serve as supplementary knowledge-based learning for those looking to increase or maintain their knowledge, and they were made available to learners registered with SIMIAN, and to the wider scaffolding community, generally. “As a professional training provider, we are always keen to explore the use of alternative teaching methods, many of which are used successfully in other occupations. Within the education sector, this approach is commonly referred to as ‘blended learning’, and it combines remote/virtual learning techniques with the more traditional classroom and
workshop-based training. “Despite our best efforts throughout the initial lockdown to introduce these initiatives to the scaffolding industry and to engage with learners and their employers, participation was extremely disappointing. After several weeks of low attendance at our virtual sessions, a decision was made to suspend them and to concentrate our efforts on ensuring the Covid security of our training centres. “Many occupations currently adopt a blended learning approach, and this is clearly a technique that can add value and reduce the time spent in a training centre, but the indicators from this experience tell us that the scaffolding industry is perhaps not ready to take this step.” Dave Randles added: “As the initial lockdown eased, our Centres in Warrington, Weston-super-Mare, Waltham Forest and Coventry were made Covid secure to ensure compliance with both government guidance and CISRS’ interim licensing requirements, and they reopened gradually from 01 June. The biggest challenge we faced (and continue to face!) was reduced capacity, as a consequence of ensuring social distancing requirements
