The NASC and Simian Skill have joined forces to help a former soldier take the next step in his career in the scaffolding industry.

The organisations teamed up after scaffolder Liam Gibbons reached out for assistance via the NASC's Facebook account.

He wrote: "I read with interest that the NASC is keen to encourage more ex-Forces personnel to take up positions in the scaffolding industry and had launched a fund to help them with training. Just wondered if there was anything you could do for me.

"I left the army two years ago, have been struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and am living in a veterans care home. I became a scaffolder, starting at the bottom and have worked my way up from a labourer to a qualified part one scaffolder.

"My second trainee card is close to expiring so I need to complete the Part 2 scaffolder course as soon as possible. I was wondering if there is any help available towards this next step."

Liam's appeal struck a chord with incoming NASC President Lynn Way, who has made greater engagement with the Armed Forces and creating more career opportunities for former military personnel core objectives of her presidency.

As such, the NASC and Simian Skill have agreed to co-fund Liam's Part 2 and VQ training. He will now complete his Part 2 training at Simian Skill's Waltham Forest training centre in January 2020.

NASC President Lynn Way said: "I am passionate about helping former Armed Forces servicemen enter the scaffolding industry and then progress through the training stages wherever I can. This is why we decided to help Liam on a strictly one-off basis.

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"We'll soon be in a position to help many more ex-military personnel achieve the same progress as Liam through the NASC's dedicated £150,000 training pot. We're also working hard to further strengthen our ties with the Armed Forces, ensuring that current servicemen are aware of the varied scaffolding industry careers that are available to them – many of which complement their skill sets – and can put their repatriation funding allowance towards scaffolding training.

"We hope to have more news on this front in the coming weeks."

Simon Hughes, Managing Director of Simian Skill, added: "Simian are very happy to work with NASC to support Liam's progress in the sector. We are also fully behind the ex-military initiative and wish NASC the best of luck with this worthy project."

Through the NASC's dedicated Armed Forces training pot, NASC members can claim up to £1,000 towards the retraining or upskilling of an ex-forces employee or employees.

This can be to cover the cost or partial cost of one course or several shorter duration courses and can be used in full on one individual or smaller payments on several individuals.

The money will be claimed by the NASC member in the same way as COTS/CPD funding with the member paying for the training then forwarding proof of training, CISRS card details (or copies of Certificates for non CISRS training) plus proof of payment.

Eligible candidates can either be in the process of leaving the Armed Forces or could have left in the past five years.

They can already be in the employ of an NASC member and be looking for funding for upskilling (Part2, Skills Test, Advanced, Inspection Supervisors, Design etc) alternatively they could have had other employment and are now looking to retrain to get into the scaffolding sector.

All CISRS courses are eligible. Application for non CISRS courses that are still relevant and have currency in the scaffolding sector e.g. IOSH, NEBOSH, first aid, SSSTS/SMSTS, estimating, design, HGV and so on would also be considered.

Applications are welcome for training undertaken on the date of the NASC AGM – Friday 22 November – onwards. For more information click here.

Last month, the NASC signed the Armed Forces Covenant, making a formal commitment to promote career and training opportunities in the scaffolding industry to ex-military personnel.

The NASC has also been developing relationships with various charitable partners linked with the Ministry of Defence, including Buildforce UK, After the Military and the Careers Transition Partnership.