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The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has invested in modern plant simulator technology to help train the next generation of workers.
The 16 state-of-the-art simulators have been installed at CITB's National Construction College in Bircham Newton, Norfolk.
The technology will be used to train apprentices and trainees in a wide-range of plant machinery, including excavators, cranes, crawler dozers, telehandlers, tractors and dumper trucks.
As the first of its kind in the UK, the simulators give trainees a chance to try out what the equipment is like before using the real thing, providing a life-like experience while minimising health and safety risks.
The simulators, from CM Labs in Canada and TenStar in Sweden, offer environmental benefits by reducing the amount of carbon emissions associated with traditional plant machinery. They can demonstrate the adverse effects that different weather and time can have when operating plant – for example changing from day to night, or rain, wind and snow – as well as creating modern construction scenarios that cannot be replicated in a typical real-life training session.
The investment is being made as recent figures predict almost 5,000 plant operatives will be required over the next five years. CITB contributed £700,000 towards the simulators, with £450,000 of funding coming from the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership.
Graham McPhail, Head of Education and Training at CITB, said: "This is the first large-scale investment into plant simulator technology anywhere in the UK.
"New methods of technology are playing an increasingly important role in construction and this investment will help us modernise the way we train. It is really pleasing to see the added value the simulators provide to all our learners. I am very grateful to the LEP for their support in helping this to happen.
"CITB is committed to ensuring the right training is in place to produce the highly-skilled workforce required in our industry."
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