Citybuild Repairs & Maintenance Newcastle Upon Tyne carry out the construction, maintenance and repairs of commercial and domestic properties on behalf of Your Homes Newcastle.
The client
Citybuild Repairs & Maintenance Newcastle Upon Tyne carry out the construction, maintenance and repairs of commercial and domestic properties on behalf of Your Homes Newcastle, one of the region’s biggest property management organisations and Newcastle City Council.
This NICEIC Approved Contractor has grown and has been split into construction services and repairs and maintenance. Martin Edwards is the senior repairs and construction manager of the construction services electrical department, which comprises of nearly 40 electrical contractors.
The challenge
Edwards’ needs were two-fold. He wanted his existing operatives and the dozen recently-joined electrical contractors to get up to speed on Amendment 2 of the 18th edition.
“There are many more technical elements in this version, so we need to be on the ball” he says.
Meanwhile, his electrical contractors were being called on to install increasing numbers of addressable wiring systems.
“I wasn’t confident that we had the right level of skills to deliver this; we wanted everyone to have the correct qualifications and to understand all the latest regs. You can get caught out if you’re not up to date with changes.”
“ There are many more technical elements in this version, so we need to be on the ball.”
Martin Edwards,
Senior repairs and construction manager
“ We believe NICEIC are the most trusted provider in this area. And it fitted in with our business and timescale that their trainer could conduct the course online at a time that worked for us, meaning we didn’t have to send our operatives away.”
Martin Edwards,
Senior repairs and construction manager
The solution
Edwards chose NICEIC for training in both topics. “NICEIC was one of the first organisations which could actually carry out the Amendment 2 course. We knew they would have the best technical knowledge, and that we’d be getting information straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Edwards came to NICEIC for the Fire Alarm Unit 1 & Unit 3 training because “we believe they’re the most trusted provider in this area. And it fitted in with our business and timescale that their trainer could conduct the course online at a time that worked for us, meaning we didn’t have to send our operatives away.”
“The process of designing the course was extremely straightforward. We simply outlined our challenges and NICEIC did the rest.”
In both cases, the operatives came together in Newcastle City Council’s own classroom, in front of a 50” TV screen, so they were all able to experience the trainer delivering their course live and online.
“There was no teacher at the front of the class reciting information at us, the training was very interactive. There was lots of audience participation, allowing us to talk among ourselves and feed back our answers. It was really engaging.”
And in both cases, Edwards was, “impressed with how easy and convenient the booking system is”.
The results
Regarding Amendment 2, Edwards’ operatives now have a much better understanding of what’s changed in the industry.
“So for the new safety devices we’re regularly fitting, we can give better advice to customers. In the past, we’ve had occasions with fires with customers appliances.”
And the Fire Alarm training has given his electrical contractors “a much better knowledge of what they have to install, they’re better at reading drawings and knowing what to question. It’s more competent standard.”
And rather than sending operatives off to a number of different public courses, Edwards valued the convenience of NICEIC’s online offering.
Such was the success of these two courses that Edwards has since booked some EV training with NICEIC. “We’re seeing more EV charging going in across the city,” he says, “So as well as installing, we’ll be maintaining these points.” This time, the NICEIC trainer is coming to Newcastle to train 15 operatives.
For more details on this Newcastle City Council project, please visit
www.newcastle.gov.uk
To learn more about our bespoke training portfolio please email
traininginfo@niceic.com
