Rapid Response Solutions Opens NVQ Assessment Department | Training News

UK Rapid Response Solutions (RRS) –  a specialist in providing safe and effective lifting, engineering and transportation solutions for its customers – has been approved by Cskills Awards, a brand of the UK Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), to award National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) covering a variety of lifting and plant equipment.

RRS has added NVQ assessment to an extensive portfolio of crane, rigging, transportation and related services. Cskills, approved by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), named RRS an approved NVQ centre at the turn of the year.

RRS has implemented OneFile software, which essentially replaces paperwork with technology, so riggers, crane operators or forklift truck drivers, for example, can upload videos, references and other evidence electronically for assessment.

Industry has welcomed RRS’s competency-based assessment service, noting that details of NVQs can be recorded on Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) cards, which provide proof that individuals working on construction and other sites have the required training and qualifications for the type of work they carry out.

CSCS, a skills certification scheme within the UK construction industry, keeps a database of people working in construction who have achieved, or are committed to achieving, a recognised construction-related qualification.

Recent approval from CSkills represented completion of an 18-month process at RRS to develop the required infrastructure and software, whilst training three members of staff, who will assess evidence of competency against NVQ criteria as it is uploaded to the OneFile system. Anthony Griffiths, Sean O’Byrne, and Paul Barber, RRS managing director, who will lead forklift-based assessment, will carry out assessments in a new department fronted by Stuart Trinder, sales and distribution manager.

Trinder said, “It is a significant addition to our portfolio of services that we can now offer industry representatives an efficient, cost-effective method of demonstrating NVQ-based competence. The capability of the OneFile system means anyone with a smart phone has all the tools they require to record equipment operation, take videos, make statements and submit it to us for subsequent assessment.”

Initially, RRS will offer nine NVQ assessments, but Barber anticipates that to evolve over time. He said: “We have started with a strong team of assessors and a variety of NVQs that best cover our core services. As we gauge uptake and gather more intelligence from the marketplace, we may add to the portfolio. We’re very excited about completing our first assessments and pioneering continued improvement of best practice in the lifting, transportation and other industries.”