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Slinging and Lifting Awareness
Half a day for anybody who attaches a load to a hook. Slings, shackles, eyebolts, sling angles and the pre use check, taught by somebody who has watched the wrong sling go on.
About this course
Most lifting accidents are not caused by the crane. They are caused by what is between the hook and the load: the wrong sling, the wrong angle, a damaged shackle, a load that was never as light as somebody said it was.
This half day is for the people doing that attaching. Slingers, banksmen, yard and warehouse staff, fabricators, maintenance teams and anybody who occasionally finds themselves putting a strop round something because there is nobody else about.
It covers the equipment and its limits: chain, webbing and wire rope slings, shackles, eyebolts and lifting beams, what the markings mean, and what a pre use inspection actually looks for. Then it covers the physics people get wrong: sling angles, centre of gravity, and why a two leg sling at a wide angle can be carrying far more than half the load each.
It is awareness training, not the Level 2 NVQ for a slinger signaller. If your people need the qualification for a card, we run that too and we will tell you which one the site is actually asking for.
- The law behind lifting: LOLER and PUWER in plain English, and what they expect of you
- Roles on a lift: who plans it, who supervises it, and where you sit
- Chain, webbing, round and wire rope slings, and what each is good and bad at
- Shackles, eyebolts, lifting beams and spreader beams
- Reading the markings: safe working load, working load limit, and why a tag matters
- Sling angles, and why a wide angle loads each leg far more than people expect
- Centre of gravity, load estimation, and what to do when nobody knows the weight
- Pre use inspection: what damage looks like, and what takes a sling out of service
- Basic slinging signals and communication with the operator
- Exclusion zones, tag lines and where not to stand
How completing this course helps you
- An Acadame certificate in Slinging and Lifting Awareness
- People who will reject a damaged sling instead of using it because it is the one to hand
- An understanding of sling angle that stops the most common overload on site
- Evidence for your client and your insurer that the people attaching loads were trained
Who should attend?
Slingers and banksmen, yard, warehouse and stores staff, fabricators and welders, maintenance and plant fitters, scaffolders, and supervisors who need to understand what they are signing off. Also useful for anybody in construction, manufacturing or logistics who occasionally rigs a load.
Entry requirements. None. It assumes no previous training and it is written for the people doing the work rather than the people writing the policy.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Awareness or qualification
Awareness training, or the NVQ for a card?
This half day is awareness training. It gives your people the knowledge to attach a load safely and the confidence to reject kit that is not fit to use. For a great many yards, workshops and sites that is exactly the right level.
What it is not is a vocational qualification. If the site is asking for a CPCS or NPORS card, or for a Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Controlling Lifting Operations as a Slinger Signaller, that is a different and much longer route, and awareness training will not stand in for it.
The two are not in competition. Plenty of employers run awareness across a whole yard and then put two or three people through the qualification. If you are not sure which the client is asking for, send us their wording.
Everybody who rigs a load
Slinging and Lifting Awareness. Half a day, onsite, and it can use your own slings and your own loads.
The people doing it daily
The Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Controlling Lifting Operations, Slinger Signaller, which is the route to a card.
The people planning lifts
The Level 5 Diploma in Controlling Lifting Operations, Planning Lifts, for appointed persons.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
The law and the roles
- LOLER and PUWER, and what they actually require
- Who plans a lift and who supervises it
- Where the slinger fits, and what you can refuse
- Thorough examination, and what the paperwork should say
The equipment
- Chain, webbing, round and wire rope slings
- Shackles, eyebolts, lifting beams and spreader beams
- Safe working load, working load limit and the markings
- Pre use inspection: cuts, wear, distortion, corrosion and heat damage
- Taking equipment out of service and how to quarantine it
The lift
- Estimating the load and finding the centre of gravity
- Sling angles and the load on each leg
- Choosing the right configuration for the load
- Protecting slings from sharp edges
- Basic signals and communication with the operator
- Exclusion zones, tag lines and where not to stand
Method of assessment
How Slinging and Lifting Awareness is assessed
Assessment is built into the session rather than bolted on. Your trainer checks understanding as you go and there is a short written check at the end.
Practical exercises
Handling the equipment: identifying sling types, reading tags, spotting damaged kit that has been mixed into a good set, and working out the angle on a two leg lift.
Written check
A short paper at the end of the session covering the equipment, the markings and the sling angle principle.
Certificate
An Acadame certificate on completion. We recommend refreshing it every three years, and sooner if your equipment or the work changes.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Classroom
Tutor-led at one of our centres, with everything provided.
Ask us to open a classroom date →or ask MB nowDates and locations
Arrange this course
There are no scheduled dates for this course at the moment. It is normally arranged around you.
Tell us roughly when you need it and how many people are going, and we will come back with dates and a price.
Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run Slinging and Lifting Awareness at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
Slinging and Lifting Awareness FAQs
No. This is half a day of awareness training. A slinger signaller card comes from a vocational qualification such as the Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Controlling Lifting Operations, which takes considerably longer and is assessed in the workplace. Sites asking for a card need that route, not this one.
Every three years is the usual interval, and sooner if your equipment changes, the type of lifting changes, or an incident or near miss says the message has not landed.
Yes, and it is worth doing. Running the inspection exercise on your own slings and shackles tends to find at least one item that should already have been quarantined, which is a useful morning's work in itself.
It covers what thorough examination is, who has to do it, how often, and what the report should tell you, so that your people know whether the kit they are picking up is in date. It does not train anybody to carry out a thorough examination, which is a competent person role.
Acadame. It is general awareness training rather than a regulated qualification, which is the right shape for this subject: it is built around what your people actually do and it can be adapted to your own equipment, substances and procedures. Where a regulated qualification is what you need instead, we will say so and point you at it.
Yes, anywhere in the UK, and it is usually the better option. Training on your own equipment, in your own building, with your own procedures in front of people, transfers to the job in a way a generic venue does not.
Up to twelve on a standard session. For practical subjects we will talk through numbers with you, because a room of twenty watching two people practise is not training.
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