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What is the NAS Skills Card (SICCS)

January 16th, 2010

The Shopfitting and Interior Contracting Competence Scheme (SICCS)

This is a national skills registration scheme that provides a single skills card for this sector within the global sphere of construction. What better time, therefore, for shopfitters and interior contractors to underline their independence and show the world at large the difference between themselves and the construction industry in general.

The NAS Skills Card was launched on 1st December 2009 at the request of employers, to allow them to further ally with regulations and requirements, and its goal is to apply common accredited standards for all occupations within the sector.

The NAS Skills card is branded and servcied by Construction Skills CSCS Card Health and Safety Test scheme. Applications will be processed by ConstructionSkills as NAS appointed Service Provider.

The Scheme is the recognition by the National Association of Shopfitters (NAS) and the Shopfitting Independent Training Forum (SITF) for an accredited, qualified and competent workforce from “Apprentice to Boardroom” within five years from its launch.

The aim of the SICCS Scheme:

  • Keep a record of workers in the shopfitting and interior contracting sector within the global sphere of construction who have achieved a recognised level of accredited ability and competence, and that is underpinned by the issue of an accredited skills card
  • Raise the standards of individuals applying who can demonstrate the  propriate knowledge of working safely in the sector, in addition to being able to demonstrate the prerequisite level of competence for the
  • respective occupation being undertaken.
  • Accredited prior learning and retained knowledge will be demonstrated by the respective individual’s ability to pass the ConstructionSkills Health and Safety Test.
  • Encourage those who procure shopfitting and interior contracting to use certificated skilled workers.
  • Be self financing; with any surplus funds being used for the benefit of  the shopfitting and interior contracting sector

The benefits of the SICCS scheme.

The Scheme (SICCS) aims to provide the following benefits to individuals:

  • recognition of skills, competence and qualifications
  • improved health and safety awareness
  • improved employment prospects
  • provision of training standards to equip individuals with relevant skills to be employed in the shopfitting and interior contracting sector

The Scheme (SICCS) aims to provide the following benefits to employers:

  • identification of operatives with recognised industry skills, competence and qualkoifications.
  • better quality of work
  • improved health and safety awareness amongst the workforce of the shopfitting and interior contracting sector
  • provision of training standards to equip individuals with relevant skill to enter the industry
  • a move to a qualified and carded workforce, which will help to improve customer satisfaction and the industry’s image.

Need to learn more about the the NAS Skills card and the SICCS scheme contact us

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Health and safety in the Construction Industry

March 11th, 2009

 

Health and Safety is applied common sense and accidents happen when common sense is absent.

The distress, grief and sadness experienced by a wife, mother, family and friends on losing a husband or son or daughter through a traffic accident in itself is traumatic and grief stricken. The scene of a tragic ending in serious injury or death is dismal, undignified and soul destroying and casts a dark, demoralising shadow over all present for a long period.

I’m sure you will agree that Construction is a very hazardous industry for people to work in today and has potentially many risks to life and limb. The exposure to accidents is daily and varied i.e working at height, above water, excavation etc.
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Fire risk assessment – action required by the employer

March 1st, 2009

 

Where the fire safety order regulations apply to your workplace YOU MUST carry out a FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT and make an EMERGENCY PLAN.

A FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT is a structured and a systematic examination of the workplace to identify the hazards from fire. Once identified, you must then decide if a hazard is significant, who is at risk and whether the existing fire precautions are adequate so that the risk associated with the hazard is acceptably low.

If the existing fire precautions are not adequate you must take additional action to minimise the risk either by removing or reducing the hazard or by providing adequate control measures.

If you employ five or more people you must record your FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT and keep it available for inspection by the fire authority.
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Fire risk assessment – your legal responsibility

February 25th, 2009

 

The legal responsibility for ensuring compliance with fire safety and related legislation lies with the relevant company as the employing authority, where it is in control of a workplace or is the occupier of premises.

Specific responsibilities may fall solely on the company or jointly with others in shared premises under the following (non-exhaustive) list of statutory provisions:

• The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
• The Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005
• The Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007
• Disability Discrimination Act 2005
• Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982
• Private Places of Entertainment (Licensing) Act 1967

 

The Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005

 

This reform is aimed at simplifying the fire safety process, while at the same time placing a greater onus on businesses to carry out fire risk assessments, which means the responsibility for complying with the Fire Safety Order rests with the ‘responsible person’ (main duty Holder).
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Fire risk assessment – don’t get your fingers burnt

February 24th, 2009

 

Fire is the most destructive and costly cause of damage to buildings and other property. A fire represents probably the single most catastrophic event that any establishment is likely to experience, and in addition, carries with it risks to the safety, wellbeing and potentially, the lives of its occupants. Fire is often caused by momentary acts of carelessness or failure to take account of fairly obvious hazards.

 

What is fire?

 

Fire is a chemical reaction brought about by the combining of fuel (something to burn), oxygen and the application of sufficient heat to cause ignition. When heated, combustible materials give off flammable gases, if the temperature is high enough and a sufficient quantity of oxygen is present, ignition will occur.

 

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Dowdy safety image needs effective leadership

February 22nd, 2009

 

Effective leadership from senior management is a key feature of a positive safety culture as it determines how everybody else in the organisation will view and act upon safety issues.

Unfortunately, safety management is not a field that excites many senior managers and executives.

Attending to safety issues tends to be seen as something that is required by the legislature, is boring and has little `glamour’ attached to it, rather than as something that will be seen to contribute to profit and competitiveness. Perhaps because of safety’s perceived dowdy image, corporate safety initiatives are all too often delegated to middle and junior managers, with the result that senior managers tend to become even less involved in the management of safety (i.e. `I have successfully washed my hands of that problem!’).

Inevitably, this abdication of responsibility tends to result in safety management becoming too narrowly focused, with strategic direction being lost in the process as middle and junior management concern themselves with the `how’ of safety, rather than with the `what’ and `why’.
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What is health and safety culture

February 20th, 2009

 

The `safety culture’ of an organisation can be defined as `the way we do things around here’. As such, culture provides a context for action which binds together the different components of an organisational  system  in  the  pursuit  of  corporate  goals. 

Successful organisations  tend  to  have  strong cultures which dominate and permeate the structure and associated systems. Within these organisations nothing is too trivial or too much trouble. Every effort is made by every member to ensure that all activities are done the `right’ way. Thus the prevailing organisational culture serves as a powerful lever in guiding the behaviour of its members in their everyday work.
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