Issued by: Gearhouse SA

Attending the Training course for UK Qualification - National Rigging Cert Level 3 - at Total Solutions Group (ex TFL) in Birmingham are Anthony Banks, Kendall Dixon, Wikus Visser and Roy Wood seen here with Oz Marsch (Assessor) and Chris Higgs (Training Manager)

“In South Africa, the only qualification offered to become a rigger is a three year apprenticeship in Industrial Rigging,” Wikus Visser, rigging operations manager at the Cape Town branch of Gearhouse SA explains. “This qualification however, is applicable to and focused only on industrial rigging operations like mining, heavy industry and maritime rigging. Although industrial rigging follows the same principles as live events rigging, there are huge differences.”

According to Visser, the rigging industry in the live events sector in South Africa has been largely self regulating thus far. “The Occupational Health and Safety Act requires ‘competent' people to undertake the rigging for live events, but nowhere in the act are there any standards set to determine the competency or level of training an events rigger has to adhere to.”

To address this shortfall, some individuals and companies in the events industry have developed rigging courses consisting of a few days training. However, says Visser, these are essentially crash courses in rigging and rigging principles for which the candidate receives only a certificate of attendance. “While the courses are definitely a step in the right direction, a lot of companies and individuals who partook in courses like these deemed themselves competent as defined by the OHS Act after receiving only five days of training.”

Visser describes this way of training riggers as a “fire and forget”-method. “It provides a candidate with a myriad of information, but offers no support afterwards. The major difference between this and the NRC is that, except for the entry level, no training is provided. The NRC-test is purely an assessment of a rigger's competency. The sustainability of a program like the NRC is much higher than that of a programme only focusing on training somebody to become competent.”

The NRC, says Visser, is the first proactive move from the live events rigging industry towards proper regulation and certification of rigging.

Having had their competency tested for the NRC gave the four Gearhouse riggers the opportunity to formally judge themselves by European standards. “In the live events industry Gearhouse SA deals almost daily with international clients, a lot of them from the United States and European Union. Having completed the NRC test, we can now assure our international clients that the Gearhouse-level of rigging is of the same standard they are familiar and comfortable with,” says Visser.

Two riggers from Gearhouse SA's Johannesburg branch, Anthony Banks and Kendall Dixon, and Roy Wood Operations Manager at the DBN branch completed the NRC-assessment with Visser. “In practice, this means that all riggers within Gearhouse SA will work under the supervision of a NRC-assessed rigger deemed to be of international standard.”

Gearhouse SA has always placed great emphasis on skills development within the company, making them a leader in the South African events industry.

Apart from the recent NRC-assessment, the company also developed a comprehensive training manual to use in the training of new ground riggers. “This has been done in conjunction with the Technical Production Services Learnership-program, and the manual gets constantly updated as we see gaps in the knowledge of our riggers. All trends and technology learned from various international rental companies are also passed down the ranks,” Visser says.

“At Gearhouse SA, we firmly believe in passing on the knowledge.”

Visit our PRESS OFFICE: Gearhouse South Africa is the country's premier technical supplier offering the most comprehensive range of services currently available under one roof, including Lighting, Audio, Audio Visual, Power, Rigging and custom built structures.- more....

[14 Oct 2008 12:27]

SEND TO A FRIEND  |   PRINT