The Trussed Rafter Association (TRA) has commissioned new research to establish the optimum training requirements for the industry.

Timber consultancy company TimberSolve will carry out the research, and TRA secretary Peter Grimsdale said there are no preconceptions about how the training should be structured. It could be residential, by correspondence, or it could involve on-the-job training. Equally, it could combine elements of all three.

Mr Grimsdale said: “Our aim is to provide practical training that will give all trainees a grounding in the industry – possibly with a recognised certificate or qualification at the end.”

Whatever the structure, Mr Grimsdale is clear that training is a must – and that it has to be of the right kind. He is supported in this view by Patrick Martin, managing director of Alpine Automation, who cannot understand Tony Blair’s pledge to encourage 50% of school leavers to go to university.

He said: “What’s the point of youngsters going to study for a useless degree in something like media studies when what we have is a shortage of practical skills.”

While he is keenly aware of a shortage of both manual skills and engineering and design skills in the truss rafter industry, he does not believe those gaps should be filled with graduates.

“In the past you weren’t expected to go to university. Instead, you could study for an HNC or HND which armed you with real practical skills at a high level. Today there is less opportunity – and no real incentive – for school leavers to obtain vocational qualifications in engineering and design. Instead, they go to university and leave with a degree they have no idea how to apply.”

But, said Mr Martin, if these people are entering the job market, the truss rafter industry has no alternative but to bite the bullet and find a role for them.

“We are desperately short of skills, so we need to take those university graduates with non-vocational degrees and give them practical skills. They are a resource which we neglect at our peril.”

IT graduates

Mr Martin advocates multi-tasking and skills integration. “There are many IT graduates who assume they are going to work in the IT industry. They never assume they’re going to work in the truss rafter industry, and yet we are all about 3D design, structural engineering, sophisticated computer modelling and production management.”

&#8220What’s the point of youngsters going to study for a useless degree in something like media studies when what we have is a shortage of practical skills”

Patrick Martin, managing director, Alpine Automation

Alpine Automation already runs ad hoc training courses for its customers’ employees but Mr Martin would like to offer more. “What I’d really like to see is a three-month intensive course for truss managers or beam system managers. In this way, the theoretical IT, design or management degrees obtained by trainees at university could be captured and applied to the practical business of truss rafter design and fabrication.”

Mr Martin is delighted that the TRA has teamed up with TimberSolve but said training should go beyond a course for designers. “I’d very much like to see it extended to IT, production management, even contract law – in other words everything a truss plant needs.”

Mr Grimsdale said it is hoped to formulate a properly designed induction course which will cover as many job functions as possible including engineers, sales staff, designers and estimators.

And he agrees with Mr Martin that modern university degrees are of little value unless they can be applied. “Our aim is to provide practical training that will give all trainees a grounding in the industry – possibly with a recognised certificate or qualification at the end of it.”

Training needs

Mr Grimsdale said the aim is to find out what training people need – and then supply it.

Former TRA chairman Wally Shaw, of David Cover & Son Ltd, said: “The TRA exists to ensure best practice is maintained throughout the membership. To that end, we monitor and participate in the legislative processes that affect design, manufacture, health and safety, quality assurance and professional indemnity insurance.

“Training is fundamental to every industry, and we are equally committed to augmenting our members’ training programmes for their staff, to provide professional competence at every level, and encourage recruits to our industry to acquire not only the knowledge of how to do their job, but why they are doing it.”

Mr Shaw said computer and manufacturing technology is constantly evolving, as are the standards and rules by which the industry must operate. He added: “Our aim is to ensure our personnel evolve with them, and maintain the highest degree of professionalism possible.”

And Mr Martin believes that while change is in the air, it is time to give the truss industry a makeover. “We seriously need to do an image job. We must promote the hi-tech aspect and develop training courses that will convince IT graduates that it’s an industry worth getting into.”