New UK training course launched for demolition site managers

A new CCDO Demolition Managers' course has been unveiled by the National Demolition Training Group (NDTG), the training arm of the UK's National Federation of Demolition Contractors (NFDC). The new course consists of a six-day CCDO Demolition Managers Programme, which has been established following a successful pilot scheme that involved 10 demolition managers.

The course is based at the NFDC's Hemel Hempstead headquarters and at ACT-UK Coventry, and will be a permanent addition to the NDTG's CCDO/CSCS Card Scheme for which candidates will be industry assessed and issued with a CCDO/CSCS Demolition Site Manager's Card. An NVQ Level 4 will be required to qualify the card.

Training group manager Sophie Francis said of the new qualification: "In an ideal world, all Demolition Managers would hold the new Demolition Site Managers Card with immediate effect, but in the real world that simply is not possible. The NDTG has therefore announced a five-year phasing-in period for this card, whereby all Demolition Site Managers have attended this course and achieved the required standard by the end of 2015. As has been the case with many other card introductions, clients and main contractors are hot off the mark when enforcing new cards on site. However, from a long history of new card implementations, it is evident that it will generally take up to five years to get a fully carded workforce."