Lexia Group

The client

TASC provides asbestos training to Lexia Solutions Group which was formed in 2004 and is the holding company for 2 companies:

• Rhodar Specialist Enabling Works Limited
• Thermac (Hire) Limited

Rhodar is one of the UK’s biggest and longest established asbestos removal contractors. Founded in 1976, it has extensive experience and expertise of working with asbestos removal successfully completing thousands of projects in the UK for organisations across the public and private sectors and for residents in private and social housing.

TASC provides licenced asbestos training for new operatives, supervisors and contract managers, annual refresher training for all 3 levels and on-site asbestos audits throughout the UK.

TASC has been working with Rhodar since it was established 16 years ago and we have trained over 400 staff. On an annual basis we agree a training plan with the client, and this is based on what we advise current trends, industry updates or advice from statutory bodies is. This is matched to the issues raised by the company for example; results of safety audits, near misses or reportable accidents.

The H&S Officer at Rhodar commented that “we have always found TASC to be a reliable and professional company to work with and they have contributed greatly to our training needs.” This is evidence of the collaborative approach we adopt to ensuring that our training programme recognises the operational context of our client.

Demolition

Rhodar (formally Bagnalls) is one of the UK’s longest established demolition contractors, delivering quality, controlled demolition, dismantling, remediation, decommissioning, soft-strip and asbestos removal services to sites across the UK.

TASC has provided UKATA licenced asbestos training for over 140 employees covering new operatives, supervisors and managers and annual refresher training for the asbestos division. We provide non-licenced asbestos removal and refresher training for the demolition division, based around the removal of cement sheets and floor tiles for the operatives, supervisors, managers and plant drivers. We deliver bespoke Asbestos Awareness courses for office staff. We have also carried out on-site asbestos audits throughout the UK. It is important to maintain flexibility to our client’s requirements and due to short notice tasks, we have run additional courses on available free days and weekends to meet requests and exemplified through our support to the demolition side of the business.

The HSEQ Representative wrote: “We have been using TASC as a training provider for a number of years across a range of courses. From the first enquiry, to the delivery of courses, their expertise, customer service and course delivery is exemplary. We also check each course with our attendees and the feedback is, without exception, very positive. They make an invaluable contribution in assisting us to deliver timely, comprehensive, in-depth training – always offering us advice and guidance.

The team is well informed on key industry matters ACOPs etc. Anyone using TASC has an excellent partner to assist then deliver industry leading training.”

Thermac (Hire) Ltd

Thermac (Hire) supplies, hires and services an extensive range of equipment and consumables for the construction industry, including a range of specialist equipment for asbestos removal.

TASC provides initial and refresher licenced asbestos training to operatives and supervisors at our head office in Chorley

Summary

Rhodar employ over 500 personnel, approximately 400 who are removing asbestos in the commercial and domestic arenas at both licenced and non-licenced levels. Therefore, there is a regular requirement to train personnel new to the industry. TASC is the trainer of choice for the Lexia Group where we have provided asbestos training to the company for over 16 years. Asbestos, like the rail industry, requires the highest H&S standards. The TASC team train personnel to reach these standards and then check, through the training needs analysis (TNA) that the standards are maintained.

As the removal operations vary across the commercial and domestic arenas the training is often bespoke but is based on the syllabus created by UKATA and, as a minimum, meets these requirements. TASC works with the Director of HR/Safety/Operations (as appropriate) to ensure that our training will cover any issues that they wish us to cover based on their recent experience.

Following UKATA guidelines class sizes for licenced and non-licenced training are restricted to 12 for theory and 6 for practical training (additional trainers attend for the practical phase). Asbestos Awareness courses are restricted to 15 by UKATA. The trainees travel from all areas of the UK varying in experience, knowledge and ability, TASC have assisted personnel whose first language is not English and assist personnel with learning difficulties by tailoring the level of support once this is notified by the company.

UK regulations require that anyone working with asbestos must be competent and this must be proven by the candidate to obtain a successful conclusion. Different learning styles are catered for through a mixture of presentation styles and learning aids to satisfy the audio, visual and kinaesthetic learning models. The course covers the 18 modules listed in HSG 247 Chap 4 including but not exclusive to different types and uses of asbestos, health effects, legislation, RPE & PPE, role of the analyst and the 4-stage clearance.