Supporting the next generation of operators, Peter Haddock reports
With equipment sales jumping by 30% in Q1 of 2021, yards empty and order books filling up, the industry faces a boom time, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the motorway building era. Everyone I talk to is super busy, but every new machine needs an operator, so it’s more important than ever to bring new people into the industry.
Fortunately, there has been significant movement on this front in recent months with new courses and facilities coming on stream and young people choosing to join the industry.
This February, I met Jessica, a new apprentice starting her first week on the new Flannery Plant Hire Trailblazer apprentice scheme at its equally new Operator Skills Hub. It’s an impressive facility built on Flannery’s HS2 depot near Birmingham in a joint venture with Tier 1 Contractor Balfour Beatty.
Jessica’s journey into plant operation surprised me, as she was training to be a police officer. But she explained that the variety and career prospects of the plant sector gave her the confidence to make a life-changing decision to join our industry.
The trailblazer scheme has been designed with the industry through the ‘Trailblazer Group’ formed in 2016 as an employer-led collaboration tasked with developing a fit-for-purpose apprenticeship standard for the construction plant industry. It’s chaired by Patrick Flannery and includes client organisation like HS2 and Highways England.
The Plant Operator Trailblazer Standard was then launched in July 2020 with the first apprentices welcomed into the programme, which is between 12-16 months long. With most training taking place onsite, this approach offers apprentices the chance to earn while they learn. And that is why is it appealing to both young people and career changers. The facility itself is brand new, and they learn on the kit they end up operating onsite.
Of course, the challenge is to attract people into the sector, not just young people but new people from all different and diverse backgrounds, and we are not good at this as an industry.
We have to make the plant sector more attractive by telling the positive story of why individuals should join and the exciting equipment they could be operating. And we have to do this using the media they consume whilst also making sure we support them throughout their journey.
With this in mind, at the beginning of May 2021, I interviewed 21-year-old uni student, Ted Powell, who has been put through the Plantforce Rentals Fast Track apprenticeship scheme. He was onsite with the latest fully loaded Kobelco SK210 excavator with SMP tiltrotator and Leica Geosystems semi-automatic machine control, the most advanced excavator on the Plantforce fleet.
He was being mentored by an experienced 30-year-old operation called Niall. And more importantly, Blue Dot the main contractor on the site has welcomed the chance to support him, recognising that he was a trainee novice operator.
But what was interesting to me was how Ted had embraced the technology inside the machine, from joystick controls to the 3D machine control tablet. One thing in our conversation shocked me.
One of the jobs he was tasked with was creating some bunds onsite for excess material management. But instead of waiting for the next day when an engineer would be available to create a model, he went onto YouTube and learnt how to programme the bunds into the Leica tablet. He was then able to commence work on this job.This amazed me, as this is a task I would associate with very experienced operators and long-time users of this 3D technology. But this just shows how natural this kind of approach is for the younger generation. They are used to the world of 3D gaming and working on computers or a tablet.
It is also why Plantforce has embraced a very important collaborative relationship with Weston College, to develop accredited training in a state-of-the-art facility and environment that is somewhere people feel excited to be. And it’s also why they have just launched the sectors first accredited B-TEC level 2 diploma in GPS machine control, which is now being rolled out across the industry.
Plantforce’s Digital Plant Manager, Dale Hawkins has been responsible for its creation. He said: “GPS machine control is not something you can train in a day, it’s a vast subject. You are not just asking operators to follow a satnav in a car. You are asking them to embrace high tech, highly advanced engineering tools.
“This is why we have been working on this B-TEC vocational qualification in collaboration with Weston College now for two years, making it available to other training organisations since March this year.”
Of course, it is not just about apprenticeships. It’s also about bringing new people into the sector and making sure you keep them. This is why I recently interviewed Chloe Rackley from Lynch Plant Hire. She joined the business as an apprentice in July 2019, having been encouraged by her grandad, giving up a career as a hairdresser. Chloe has been working for Lynch ever since and last year picked up a prestigious ‘Highly Commended’ award as the CPA Stars of the Future.
Talking to Chloe brought home how much fun it is to be in this industry, “You meet some amazing people along the way in this job and pick up some amazing skills,” she said as she explained the next part of her training. “Having started as a dumper driver, I am now moving onto 360 excavators and working on HS2, which I am proud to be a part of and played my part in moving the country forward.”
For Lynch, it is all about finding more people like Chloe who want a career in plant. Tessa Leigh Allen-Ridge, its National recruitment manager, is looking at all avenues to find them, reaching out to schools, working with charities and employment groups from across the spectrum, including ex-offenders, ex-military personnel and more.
But she also highlighted the recent success of its friends and family approach, Tessa: “Two of our latest cohort of 16 trainees have come from our outreach programme. This is where we have used our own employees to spread the word about opportunities. It really plays on our core strengths as a family business, as people can see that our staff want to promote working for us as a business.”
Delving deeper into the ongoing training, I also spoke to Gez Bonner, its operator plant trainer, to understand the level of support its operators get, Gez: “The initial competency training and accreditation is very important for operators being able to do the job and be allowed onsite. But to get the most out of our machines, we have to go further.
“This is why we have developed a careers skills pathway for continuous learning that provides the right level of ongoing training and machine familiarisation sessions with all of the types of plant we supply.
“For example, with our new 3D machine control division, we are training operators not just on how to use the latest excavators but also the technology that comes in the cab from all of the core 3D providers. Having well trained and competent people is key to our success and the future of the industry.”
It’s great to see how much is going on in the sector and see that we deliver high-quality training and work towards professionally recognised new competencies. All we have to do now is shout much loader about how great our sector is and the potential careers and remuneration it can provide,
Chloe
Jessica
Ted
