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Closing out a highly successful 2018 for the BMI National Training Centre, the team were kept at it almost until the last day of the working year with the staging of the third Roofing Tutor Forum. The forum brings together many of the colleges, training groups and independent tutors that BMI UK & Ireland supports throughout the year; alongside industry representatives from CITB and the NFRC, to update on standards and discuss best educational practice for their learners.
Leading the sessions were BMI UK & Ireland’s Mat Woodyatt, Technical Training Manager; and Alastair Blant and Anthony McFarlane, Technical Trainers – Pitched and Flat Roofing respectively. They were supported by contributions from Simon Dixon, NFRC Training and Technical Manager, and Andy Rowlands, NFRC Consultant and Managing Director of Rowlands Roofing.
Topics ranged from a briefing on the NFRC’s Safe2Torch campaign and how BMI’s TorchSafe range of products and design and specification service relates to it; BS 476-3:2004 and the fire classification of flat roofs; through to the consequences of ‘spec breaking’ and why systems matter; the RoofCert scheme and an update on the performance of competitors in the recent SkillBuild finals.
All in all, the BMI team hosted a dozen industry representatives. The forums mark the group’s ongoing support for the industry, with the first event held in December 2017. The delegates then decided to meet every six months, with the next meeting due in June 2019 and in association with at the BMI Apprentice of the Year 2019 competition being held at the National Training Centre.
