IPAF’s MEWPs training gets industry praise

The International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) has received strong endorsement for its one-day training programme ‘MEWPs for Managers'.

The course, which covers topics ranging from health and safety regulations and accident prevention and control, to personal protection equipment and pre-use checks and maintenance, when using mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs), has been applauded by UK site managers.

MEWPs for Managers is about planning, supervising and managing the use of powered access, and not about operating equipment. It ends with a written test that candidates must pass in order to obtain a certificate.

Selected IPAF-approved training centres, including Lutterworth-based Nationwide Platforms, in Cumbria, offer the course in the UK. Craig Halliwell, site manager with UK-based Time and Tide Group, recently attended the course while working on-site in Cumbria. According to Mr Halliwell, the course has changed the way he works and thinks.

"The course covers everything managers need to know about using MEWPs on site," he said. "It makes you totally aware of every possible danger. I now pay more attention to planning and control, and doing the risk assessment. I am more aware of the need to select the right machine and to walk the route, for instance."

Halliwell was sponsored by IPAF to take the MEWPs for Managers course as part of the federation's efforts to encourage best practice in the use of MEWPs.