Arco Professional Safety Services has announced that it is the first UK company to pass the new EUSR (Energy and Utility Skills Register) audit to become a MATS (Masts and Towers Safety Group) accredited training provider.

For many years, access to telecoms masts and tall towers in the UK has been controlled by ArQiva, which owns 80% of telecoms mast sites. Recently this has evolved and a new scheme developed. MATS has collaborated with ArQiva to develop audit protocols to ensure that all training companies provide a high quality standard product for climbers. The scheme is to be administered in the UK by EUSR (Energy & Utility Skills Register). MATS ownership of the training content, combined with the ESUR quality assurance of the delivery, will result in a consistently high standard of training for all climbers in the industry.

On 5th June the EUSR (Energy & Utility Skills Register) launched The MATS Climbing and Rescue Training scheme. The scheme has been developed following a period of consultation about content with the training providers that have historically provided this training to the industry. All training providers now have until the end of 2019 to gain the necessary approvals for delivering this training.

From the 1st January 2020, all telecoms workers in the UK requiring access to ArQiva masts will have to undertake Mast and Towers Safety group (MATS) accredited training. This training must be delivered by a provider that has passed the EUSR (Energy and Utilities Skills Requirement) audit. Given the short time frame there will be very few providers able to meet the standard required. Arco is the first UK provider to have passed the stringent audit.

Andy Dinn, lead Internal Quality Assessor and part of the SHEQ team at Arco’s Eccleshall facility prepared a submission for the rigorous EUSR audit. After the training content had been approved, the EUSR auditors visited the training centre at Eccleshall where a full audit of the training facilities took place.

Gary Wood, Working at Height Subject Matter Expert at Arco Professional Safety Services said: “We are delighted to have passed this audit, and it reflects our combination of excellent training facilities, relevant course materials and of course our experienced and qualified training team. This accreditation means that we are able to continue to offer our essential MATS training to our customers.”

For more information or to book training visit: https://www.arcoservices.co.uk/