| This September our Training Centre in Soham was taken over for a week by PASMA so they could run their Access Tower Specialist (ATS) course, the first time it has been run since 2023, and our Instructor Richard swapped to the other side of the desk to take the course himself and complete the final stage of his PASMA training. Access Tower Specialist is the highest qualification available from PASMA for tower users, aimed at those who's work will involve building complex towers of a Non-Standard configuration, outside the scope of a standard manual. With the course not being run that often and only run at the Test & Research Centre, where the course has been designed around the building and its 25m clearance height, delegates from Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Stoke and London travelled to Soham for a week of tower building. |  RSC Training's Richard Chapman (far left) with fellow delegates on the Access Tower Specialist course in Soham |
The course actually began a week previous, with the first day being a theory based day run online via Zoom. This gave the delegates a chance to introduce themselves and for Lead Instructor Lee Choat, who was running the course on behalf of PASMA, to take the group through a recap of the information from the modules that they had done to qualify for the ATS course as well as start to introduce new terminology such as Design Drawings and Assembly, Use and Dismantle Plans (AUDPs). All of which concluded with the first of what was to be a daily theory test.
 Euro Towers Non-Standard Linked Tower Scaffold | The first day at Soham was designed to ease the delegates into building a complex tower structure, with "only" a Non-Standard Linked Tower (pictured left) planned for the day. After a brief theory session, a team leader was selected and a safety meeting held to plan the build, which was to include high clearance and walk through frames at the base, staggered platform levels and a maximum height of 7m. Every delegate was expected to lead either a build or dismantle throughout the week, so it was Adam from Tower Hire (Services) Ltd who took charge on the first morning. RSC Training's Richard commented on how the first day went: "It was good to meet everyone in person and it really helped that everyone got on well right from the start. It was to prove to be the foundation for a great team dynamic throughout the week. It also helped that the guys from Tower Hire (Services) Ltd were experienced building these type of structures, as its what they do for a living, which helped balance any inexperience from the rest of us on the course." |
Then next two days were dedicated to building and dismantling what was loosely referred to as a "Horseshoe Tower", but officially a Combination Tower Structure. The concept was that a customer had asked for this particular design of tower to be built, then throughout the course of the job some adaptations were required, meaning the team would need to work from several design drawings as the changes were made.
| This time it was Richard's turn to lead the build, so again after the theory and safety meeting, the team got to work putting the structure together, which included two Linked Towers built to 6m high, with a Bridge section across the back joining the two together to form a Large Deck working platform level (pictured right). Richard commented: "The build itself was fairly straightforward, which sounds silly to say when you see the complexity of it, but it is just a case of following the design drawing specifically. That's where the role of team leader is important, as it's also about managing the team so the build gets done correctly and also safely." The first adaptation included added a Cantilever section halfway up across the side and another at the top on one of the ends. The second and final adaptation was to bridge across an obstruction to another tower that was built on Stairs from the top level, thus creating a tower structure that included elements from all of the category modules of Linked, Bridged, Large Deck, Cantilever and Stairs that were the pre-requisites to qualify for the ATS course itself. |  Alto Tower Combination Tower Scaffold, stage one build prior to any adaptations being made |
 UTS High Level Linked Tower with Buttress | The fourth day saw the team take on the challenge of building a High Level Tower (pictured left), which included a 14m Linked Tower with a 10m Buttress. The safety meeting was quite important for this build as, due to the height of the structure, the method of passing components up and down was now going to include the use of ropes. A lot more manual effort and a good communication between the team needed. The structure went up systematically, with the main tower and the buttress being built and linked together level by level at the same rate, as per the AUDP, until the final section of the main tower was completed to 14m. Everyone in the team was on the tower or buttress at some point during either the building or dismantling process, with everyone getting a turn roping equipment up or down. With the majority of the hard work now completed for the week, all that remained was the final day, which was to include Tying In methods. After a slightly longer theory session, the team quickly assembled three relatively small towers and positioned them ready to tie into various sections of the building. |
Three Tying In types were covered on the course, a Box Tie, a Through Tie and a Hook Anchor (pictured below). Working in pairs, each pair then took turns tying in each tower to the building to secure the tower, then undoing and removing the ties.
 Box Tie |  Through Tie |  Hook Anchor |
And so an equally tough and enjoyable week came to an end, with the delegates heading back to their homes having taken on and completed PASMA's most challenging training course and hopefully achieved what they set out to at the start.
Wrapping up the week, Instructor Lee reflected: "I thought the week went really well, there was a nice mix of experience within the group and everyone worked really well together. It was also nice to see the less experienced delegates learning from the more experienced on the various builds"
John Darby, General Manager for the Test & Research Centre, added: "It was a pleasure to host the Access Tower Specialist course again here at Soham. We have been the home of PASMA's flagship course since 2020, and each course sees delegates go away with new knowledge about towers that they can implement in their day to day work, thus helping them stay safe when Working At Height."
Richard also added: "I have really enjoyed the course and would thoroughly recommend other Instructors do the course too. It has done for me what I set out to do, which was to improve my knowledge of towers and the wider industry, hopefully helping me to be a better Instructor ongoing.
Each of us on the course had our own reasons for being there, mine as stated, the guys from Tower Hire (Services) Ltd covering themselves to build these structures in their jobs and Clive and Sean looking to add this type of building to their business model.
You will be hearing more from Clive on his PASMA journey at the PASMA AMM on the 8th October, but on a personal note, as both Clive and Sean had completed all of their courses with us and mostly also with me, it was a nice full circle moment to complete the ATS course with them too and finish their PASMA training with them."
The next ATS course is scheduled for March 2027, for those interested in doing the course, contact PASMA directly.
Wrapping up the week, Instructor Lee reflected: "I thought the week went really well, there was a nice mix of experience within the group and everyone worked really well together. It was also nice to see the less experienced delegates learning from the more experienced on the various builds"
John Darby, General Manager for the Test & Research Centre, added: "It was a pleasure to host the Access Tower Specialist course again here at Soham. We have been the home of PASMA's flagship course since 2020, and each course sees delegates go away with new knowledge about towers that they can implement in their day to day work, thus helping them stay safe when Working At Height."
Richard also added: "I have really enjoyed the course and would thoroughly recommend other Instructors do the course too. It has done for me what I set out to do, which was to improve my knowledge of towers and the wider industry, hopefully helping me to be a better Instructor ongoing.
Each of us on the course had our own reasons for being there, mine as stated, the guys from Tower Hire (Services) Ltd covering themselves to build these structures in their jobs and Clive and Sean looking to add this type of building to their business model.
You will be hearing more from Clive on his PASMA journey at the PASMA AMM on the 8th October, but on a personal note, as both Clive and Sean had completed all of their courses with us and mostly also with me, it was a nice full circle moment to complete the ATS course with them too and finish their PASMA training with them."
The next ATS course is scheduled for March 2027, for those interested in doing the course, contact PASMA directly.
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