PASMA courses

[Joe Bleasdale]

hi all,

I am currently thinking of doin my PASMA licence/course. I was wondering whether there is and age limit to the courses themselves. I know there is a topic going at the moment about legal age of working at height, but wasnt sure whether it would affect the course?

 

thanks

joe

[kerry davies]

Hi; I note that nobody has so far expressed an opinion?

The good point is that you are concerned enough to think of training, so I spoke to a PASMA official at the NEC yesterday who confirmed my own thoughts.

There is no "legal" aspect but PASMA training should not be delivered to anyone under 16 years of age. This because of young persons "at work" legislation and because PASMA is for "work" at height. He also emphasised that young people over 16 may be trained but should still be supervised by "an experienced and competent person", due to their youth and lack of experience. This does not mean to say that some trainers might allow a young person to undergo training, and pay for it, just that PASMA does not endorse the training, which would then be worthless.

Hope this helps.

[Joe Bleasdale]

So what your saying is that if I wait until I am 16 I can take the course and work at height afterwards also, solongs as I am supervised by an adult? Thats good.

 

thanks for the relpy kerry

joe

[bruce]

No. He's saying "supervised by a competent adult".

[kerry davies]

Thank you, Bruce. I have been trying not to respond but red rags and bulls etc!

A definition of competence could be: a combination of knowledge and experience proven by an appropriate qualification.

 

I'm afraid to say that, from bitter personal experience, teachers having degrees in English or Drama are usually lacking in the necessary combination of knowledge and experience to be called competent in WaH or many other aspects of technical theatre. If teachers were placed in any comparable industrial situation they would be hard pressed to prove competence but, due to the fact that they are in education and not "at work", they appear to get away with it.

 

The propriety of qualifications is worthy of a whole topic of its' own and is the subject of ongoing discussion within the various sectors of the industry and on this forum; the moves by associations and companies to set up courses, even within HE, is a positive move. They don't just moan, you know!

 

B-) Maybe this could be one reason why some leading industry figures will not employ the current crop of academically qualified recruits? The fact that some (lots?) of them are being taught by, technically speaking, "incompetents"? :unsure:

[Ike]

the moves by associations and companies to set up courses, even within HE, is a positive move.

...in your opinion.

 

Others may argue that short courses are a terrible method of judging competence and they encourage employers and contractors to base their decisions on bits of paper rather than checking references and using their judgement. A method which has worked for many many years.

 

It's also arguable that really good technicians are the least likely to attend as they are too busy working and find the subject matter boring to say the least. This in turn leads to students and those with less experience ending up the 'most qualified'.

 

This then leads to more and more jobs being filled by those with less experience and who maybe aren't competent but have enough bits of paper to 'prove' they are which in turn leads to the devaluation of the industry, everyone being treated like idiots by H&S types and less money for all but a very few.

 

Of course bits of paper aren't without their benefit, they do mean less work for the office types who don't need to bother assessing employees/contractors but can instead feel confident that they have a bit of paper so they must be great.