Tuesday 5 March 2013

The Ins And Outs Of AITT Accreditation

If one were familiar with RTITB forklift training, then at some point, one would also get to know The Association of Industrial Truck Drivers (AITT), an independent accreditation organization that centers on the operation training of lifts.  Since 1991, the AITT has been supported by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA), the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) under the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP L117) specifically for Fork Truck Operator Training. 

There are six areas that AITT focuses on for industry registration:  Employed or subcontracting instructor, accredited operator training companies, accredited instructor and operator training companies, tutors, examiners, and safety awareness instructor.  Since AITT is a non-profit organization, all costs are low (especially in comparison to forklift training costs), but they cover all industry corners.  AITT is also informed to the latest standards, rules, as well as visual and written materials of training.  Each registered applicant and applying training company will be individually reviewed by the AITT.  Certification and photo identification will be given at the successful completion of the training. Visit AFTT for more information on forklift truck training.

AITT is run by professionals currently working in the industry, and have elections twice a year to ensure the people’s leading choices.  They are closely related to the Workplace Transport Team at HSE headquarters, and are members at the Accrediting Bodies Forum (ABF).  There are four types of memberships available for purchase with AITT:  Self-employed instructor, employed instructor, associate, and company.  Self-employed instructors individually offer commercial construction training after being approved by the HSE; this type is required to be monitored by the AITT.  Employed instructors are already registered AITT members who are working under a company that does not certify licenses under their names; the AITT does not require monitoring for this type of membership since the instructor is already registered with them.  Associate memberships are either an individual or a company whose goals are on safety training, but do not actually instruct the courses themselves.  Company memberships are for any organization that trains operators, tutors, and instructors in the use and maintenance of industrial machines; this type of membership is required to be monitored by the AITT.  Self-employed memberships are £175, employed instructor memberships are £50, Associate memberships £45, and company memberships are £350.  Memberships have to be applied via the post to their Springboard Centre site at Coalville, Leicestershire. 

As a member of AITT, a newsletter will be delivered each quarter, special website access is available, AITT logos are available to be used with members’ names, and the connections that AITT is widely ranged and available to members that are involved with lift training, instruction, employers, manufacturing, and health and safety.  AITT is spread throughout the East of England, London, South West, East Midlands and Lincolnshire, West Midlands, Yorkshire, North East, North West, South, South East, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.  The AITT website has each of these regions designated with a map, the address, contact person, telephone number, email address, and category of specialty for the separate companies that are registered with AITT.



AITT also offers further educational reading on operator training testing, available for purchase on their website (members are discounted by 50% on the reading material).  AITT has a News tab online that is updated with every new event that they update and share with all viewers that has easy tagging and accessible by month.  The elected members of AITT are also viewable online, and are updated every six months.