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An employer-led trailblazer working group has been working on the scheme for several years so as to attract new recruits to the construction plant industry. Hire controllers play a key role within plant hire companies, co-ordinating the circulation of equipment to customers.
The trailblazer working group was chaired by Kirsty Archbold-Laming, director of Southern Hoists, supported by a cross-section of plant hire companies as well as the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA), the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) and the Hire Association Europe (HAE).
Kirsty Archbold-Laming said: “We’re extremely pleased after several years of hard work to get the final approval from the Institute of Apprenticeships. This new apprenticeship will be a major step in helping recruit the new staff that we need in our sector.”
The working group has had to define the duties of a hire controller for the training syllabus, which includes the provision of technical information to customers in helping them select suitable equipment; ensuring the equipment being hired is legally compliant; completing contract documentation at both on-hire and off-hire stages; processing payments, including calculating hire and rental charges, damage charges, fraud prevention measures and insurance payments; and handling technical enquiries and complaints.
The apprenticeship has been set at a level 2 and will take between 12 and 18 months to complete, with 20% of that time devoted to ‘off-the-job’ training. The IfA has placed this trailblazer in funding band eight, which equates to £5,000 that can be spent or claimed by employers (subject to current funding rules) for apprenticeship levy and non-levy paying organisations, in line with typical training costs supplied by training providers.
It is expecteds to go love later this year.
For further details, see: www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/hire-controller-plant-tools-and-equipment
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