I need some help. I am trying to get my company through SSiP accreditation (for the 5th year in a row), but the assessor is stating that he will only accept PASMA stamped certificates for mobile access tower training. Is this law?

I have been on the PASMA website and the HSE website but I can't find where it states that the training provider has to be PASMA stamped. I believe that this may be myth? Much like the UKATA accreditation for asbestos (that was a fun day on the internet...)

Any and all help will be appreciated.

All the Sites i've been too have PASMA trained operatives for erection of Mobile Tower platforms. I don't really know of anyone else that does it similar training thats recognised throughout the UK.

As for training them yourselves The Pasma Route is a Five day course to train as a trainer and costs £2100 + Vat

Which is pretty expensive but if your going to be training loads of people then it might be worth it.

However if you think you could just train them on your own without the Official Pasma Instructors training, then i think your going to have difficultly in getting other associations and schemes to approve your standard of training.

Might be cheaper and better to pay for the staff to go on an approved course and get their pasma Card, Almost every building site in the UK requires Pasma Trained errectors and will just not let anyone errect a scaffold without this card. Its around £100 to Train a person for their Pasma Card.

Might be the cheaper option for you?

Thanks Frankc, yes its pretty expensive and since they are the only ones in the UK that do this for Tower Scaffolds then its the set price.

To train an individual for 5 Years costs around £100 or thereabouts which isn't that expensive if you break it down to yearly totals.

PASMA is recognized on all UK sites and you'll be hard pressed to find a site that allows something different, or even if you have your own in house training

Anyone who is Pasma trained will notice the tower in the link you provided, Ron is not built in compliance of both Pasma or the Work @ Height Regs.

I'm intrigued as to what you see the faults as.

The first think i noticed about the tower was the small frame (or handrail frame as it used to be called) was on the top. As Clive said, this should now be on the base as your starting point if the tower is going to be built to an even level floor (like 2m, 4m, 6m etc) or done away with if you are going to an odd level floor of 1m, 3m, 5m etc.
Like Clive i also noticed the lack of handrails on the intermediate floor plus the fact the gap between the two platforms is 3m. These platforms are assembled every 2m.
As for the diagonal bracings, i can't really see whether any are missing or not.

Ron is Bang On,

You'll be hard pressed at this moment to find an alternative to Pasma, The majority of the UK sites demand PASMA qualified personnel, Even the HSE as Ron showed.

I'm guessing that any training that you want to provide must be to PASMA standard and by an approved PASMA trainer.

I hadn't picked up on the frame size issue. But then again, I'm not PASMA trained. Maybe that helps make the OP point? ;)