Gate Safe, the pioneering charity that was the first to raise awareness of the need for improved standards in the safety of automated gates, marked another important milestone recently, as it celebrated its 150th training event, held at Trade Skills 4U, Crawley – a long-standing supporter of Gate Safe. The latest training session brings the total number of installers on the acclaimed national register of Gate Safe Aware installers up to 1,700.
Since the roll-out of the IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety & Health – the world’s biggest professional health and safety membership organisation) approved training – Gate Safe has delivered its popular ‘plain English’ training with a strong practical focus on a regular basis. All delegates that pass the course are eligible to feature on the Gate Safe register which has quickly become the go-to source of information for anyone looking to appoint a competent and suitably trained installer.
Commenting on the continued growth of the register, founder Richard Jackson said:
“Our training has been specifically developed to cater for the needs of the average installer who is keen to uphold the highest standards in automated gate safety. Working with Trade Skills 4U over the past five years has allowed us to extend the reach of our gate safety messaging to professionals such as electricians to ensure they understand the required protocol to deliver a safe gate or barrier.
We recognise the need to not over-complicate with technical jargon but instead focus on the practical application of the training. Our courses are highly interactive, and we regularly adapt the training to accommodate feedback from the installer community and of course to reflect any changes in recommended best practice.
Having trained over 1700 installers – which represents 690 companies – we believe our training to be the best in class, endorsed by 12 key opinion former bodies which include RoSPA, Association of Fencing Industries (AFI), The Electrical Contractors’ Association, Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (there is a dedicated Gate Safe ECS Related Discipline white card) and Handsam, the leading experts in education compliance management. In addition to providing the relevant content for the installer community, we are also respectful of the need to recognise that the training does not place the smaller installer company under too much pressure, both in terms of financial outlay and time spent out of the business. Such has been the demand for Gate Safe training – the numbers have increased by over 180% since 2014 – we have had to expand our team of trainers, so we now have three members of the team out in the field, delivering training both at our preferred training venues around the UK as well as in-house.”
