Training Report

Training isn’t important … it’s vital!

We often see a flurry of training bookings at the beginning of each financial year as new budgets are announced, or at the end when remaining funds need to be utilised or lost. But training is so vital it is deserving of a properly organised company strategy. At BVAA we pride ourselves on being able to offer flexibility within our core training programme. This has been something a growing number of our customers have appreciated, as organisations – members and non-members – plan the development and knowledge-progression of their teams.

Continuous education ensures attendees are on the cutting edge of industry developments. As many of you will know, our programme runs each spring, summer and autumn. In response to attendee feedback, we have now added the dates for the entire year to the training tab on our website, making it easier for our customers to plan their training long-term.

We have many attendees returning in the summer term for Valves: Advanced Level (now CPD Certified) training who have been inspired by the Introduction to Valves training in the spring. These courses particularly lend themselves to this as they are delivered by the same lecturer and the informational consistency is guaranteed.

Prevent them. Refresher courses can help motivate staff, reestablish key values and are vital to ensure safe and correct practice and avoid workplace complacency.

According to the government’s Health and Safety Executive, an estimated 621,000 UK workers suffered from a serious injury in the last year alone. Because such statistics tend to be recorded by the industry in which they occurred, rather than the precise activity at the time, the direct causes of these incidents are difficult to determine.

The internet is awash with numerous valve-related examples however. Given the prevalence of valves and their vital functions, this figure alone should be enough motivation to consider some intensive safety, workplace and refresher training for everyone. No organisation wants to experience an HSE investigation or their punitive fines, perhaps even a conviction!

No matter which technical level someone is at; there is always something new to learn and room for improvement, as evidenced by the number of senior engineers attending our courses. BVAA recommend that you attend refresher training every three years; this might just help to identify problems in existing routines, break bad habits, and motivate change. You will make some good contacts along the way too! We are so fortunate that our knowledgeable lecturers remain ardent about their subject; enough so to continue to invest their time to update and deliver their courses, receiving excellent feedback, time after time. Once you’ve attended one of our courses, our lecturers are often available to provide ongoing support if required.

Training on Tour
The demand for on-site training has grown at an unprecedented rate, with more and more organisations bringing our courses to their own premises. Not only is this more economical for the host, but employees are not incurring travel expenses or excessive downtime.

Our brilliant lecturers contact each host in advance to discuss their requirements. The technical content can generally be tailored to the host organisations, making learning more engaging and easy to apply on return to work. Attendees are more relaxed and open to learning with training focussed in their own working environment.

After successfully taking our training to Aberdeen for three consecutive years, we are delighted to announce that this year’s dates have now been confirmed (see website or contact barbra@bvaa.org.uk for additional information). We are grateful to Emerson (Dyce) for the use of their fantastic Aberdeen training facility and access to their flow loop. Attendees on the introduction courses there can see the valves in action and put theory into practice in a safe and supervised environment.

Published: 26th April 2019