New hoist courses from IPAF

The International Powered Access Federation’s (IPAF) will launch a new training course for the use of hoists.

The Federation said that courses for operator and demonstrator levels would begin in the fourth quarter this year, while installer, advanced installer and trainer courses would begin in 2019.

The courses will be PAL Card accredited and the aim is to reduce the number of accidents that occur on site through the use of hoists.

Angel Ibanez, global representative for MWCP & related products, IPAF, confirmed the courses at the Federation’s Elevation Conference, held in Coventry, UK on 25 September.

Ibanez said, “We found that IPAF members were becoming increasingly interested in a course being available for this, and we know that there are a large number of users per hoist, not just one. The ratio for hoist units is greater than MWCPs, and a lot of accidents occur with hoist use, predominantly due to the lack of training.”

Members will be able to book courses via the IPAF website.

Giles Councell, director of operations at IPAF, also gave an update on the Federation, confirming it now had 1,342 members from 67 different countries, with 752,308 active PAL Cards worldwide.