It was around 1995, when we first noticed that the major construction players were seriously beginning to take an interest in Health & Safety on Site. We had operators in our employ who, although had no formal academic qualification, had over 20 years of practical experience under their belt.

Occasionally we would send one of our very experienced operators to site and, due to the fact that they had no recognised and acceptable form of qualification, they would be refused entry to the site. On the other hand there were occasions, when our Operated Plant Hire Division was very busy, that we would advertise for experienced certified excavator operatives. We found that although the applicants had the certification, most of them had little site experience and this was very apparent on the ground, resulting in dissatisfaction from our customers. These problems were affecting our mission to provide each of our clients with the most excellent and professional service possible so we made plans to improve this by improving training for our operatives.

Over the coming years we would instruct our people with 'in house' training schemes. One of our main aims in these training schemes was to monitor performance and ensure competence. We showed our operators that 'there was never an accident that happened, that could not have been avoided'. One of the main causes of site accidents was wrong procedures being used and this was either as a direct result of 'taking a short cut' or inadequate training in the procedure required to carry out the task safely and efficiently.

The natural progression from our 'in house' training scheme was to plan a training centre to meet the national standards of the industry.

In 2008 Derrycraw was approved by the Construction Awards Alliance as an Accredited Centre for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). It is a purpose built, state of the art centre. Our main aim is to help support the development of a world-class construction industry.

The wheels are now also in motion for accreditation as a CPCS Testing Centre to enable the provision of training and assessment of theory and practical testing under the new CPCS scheme for construction operatives.

Derrycraw is positioned in a convenient location 300 metres off the main A1, Newry to Belfast road, situated adjacent to the location of the newBeechill Roundabout, which will link the new section of the M1 Dublin to Belfast route between the Cloghoge roundabout and the A1 at Beechill.

If you feel that you would like additional information in relation to this area, please contact our Quality Assurance Co-ordinator, Elinor Burns on 028 3082 1747