Ainscough Crane Hire’s training programme highly commended at Construction News awards

Ainscough Crane Hire’s innovative approach to training has been lauded at the construction industry’s most prestigious award ceremony.

The annual Construction News Awards celebrates the very best in the industry. At the ceremony, which took place in London and was hosted by TV’s Claudia Winkleman, Ainscough Crane Hire was highly commended in the Training Excellence category for its innovative Ainscough Crane Hire Skills Academy, a 12 month structured traineeship.

Normally, a crane operator could do two weeks training and qualify as a crane operator. Ainscough’s programme goes further, taking those two weeks and putting them into a structured package which results in them receiving a CPCS Competent Operator card after a year long process. Without this structured training the operators could remain on a trainee card for up to three years.

All Ainscough operators receive first-class training, with Ainscough’s Make the Safe Choice ethos being core to each stage of development, and receive a competitive rate of pay with attractive benefits and holiday packages.

The academy aims aim to deliver over 100 new crane operators to the business every year on a rolling basis through the training programme. In its first year, 104 trained crane operators graduated from the Academy, as well as 13 lifting technician apprentices.

The award judges commended Ainscough on:

• Its focus on raising standards to the benefit of not just Ainscough, but the lifting sector as a whole.
• Its passion for people and using the Ainscough traineeship to make new recruits to any crane hire company have higher expectations of the training packages that should be on offer.
• Going above and beyond the minimum standards to encourage a safety culture by engagement throughout the traineeship.

Peter Gibbs, CEO, Ainscough Crane Hire said: “We’re delighted that our innovative training programme has been recognised at the most prestigious awards ceremony in construction.

“The primary aim of the Ainscough Crane Hire Skills Academy is to provide best in class training and to offer a structured and intense 12-month training programme that produces trained, competent and enthusiastic operators for the future of the business and construction as a whole.

“This recognition is testament to the hard work of our team, and also the brilliant individuals who have taken part in the Academy to date.”