Simian Expansion Plans Gather Pace

Recent reports in some quarters of the scaffolding industry press have suggested that an alternative scaffolding training scheme is to be launched, to rival the Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS).

The reports, based on claims of inadequate supply of scaffolding courses in the UK, stated that research had revealed that when the researchers attempted to reach the UK’s centres, a total of four had been unreachable, and that one fifth of centres were ‘either unreachable or unable to offer training dates’. In response to this article, we thought it timely to clarify our position in relation to increasing our levels of service provision.

As with all businesses, the service offered by Simian is based on customer demand and although there are inevitable and unavoidable limitations to this service provision, we are committed to increasing supply. Back in the summer of 2015, we introduced a web-based electronic course booking system and doing so enabled us to closely analyse the buying habits of our customers by analysing the data produced by the system. During this process, we learned that very few bookings are made without a relatively significant amount of time passing between the point of booking and actual course attendance and since 2015, this has averaged 44 days for ‘core’ courses. During the same period, capacity has averaged at just over 90%, meaning that there is course availability more often than there is not.

Notwithstanding this, as a business we continue to look for further delivery opportunities for CISRS scaffolding training, and our recently opened centres in Surrey and Wrexham  are the first in a growing list of our new CISRS centres that have already increased delivery output, with additional centres in Anglesey and Somerset to follow imminently. Currently, these centres are accredited to deliver CISRS COTS and Basic Scaffold Inspection courses, but further delivery capacity for ‘core’ CISRS scaffolding courses and scaffolding apprenticeships will be available later this year.

In addition to the centres already delivering the shorter-duration courses, additional centres, currently bound by commercial confidentiality, in the south east; midlands and the east of England, are at an advanced stage of planning and we anticipate rolling out additional ‘core’ scaffolding course availability later this year, with a view to all of these new centres being operational in the early to mid-part of 2019.

Speaking about Simian’s expansion plans, Simon Hughes, Managing Director, said:

“This is a very exciting time for Simian. We have put a considerable amount of time and effort into increasing our training delivery capacity across a far greater geographical area of the country.

It is fantastic to see that the hard work of our team is now coming to fruition and to see our service provision growing. The next twelve months will see CISRS course availability in more areas of the UK and we are delighted to be able to offer a more ‘local’ service to an increased proportion of our retained client base.

All of the courses we provide will be available for booking via our website, which is currently being upgraded to meet the demands of increased training delivery”.