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NPORS Hoist Training (N111)
The hoist is how everything gets up the building: blocks, boards, bags and the people carrying them. One day covers the gates and interlocks, the safe working load, the landing levels and the things that go wrong when somebody props a gate open to save a trip. Four candidates at a time, run on request at your site.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N111 Hoist different
About this course
The NPORS N111 Hoist category covers construction hoists: the mast mounted goods hoists and passenger and goods hoists that run up the outside of a building and serve each floor. They are the artery of a job in progress, moving materials and people all day, and they are one of the few pieces of site plant that carry passengers, which puts them in a stricter part of LOLER.
The day covers the machine: the mast and its ties, the car or cage, the gates at the landings and on the car, the interlocks that stop the car moving with a gate open, the overload sensing, the limit switches and the emergency stop. Then the operating envelope, which is the safe working load, the permitted number of passengers where the hoist carries people, the way a load has to be distributed in the car, and the landing arrangements at each level.
The rest is the practical discipline that keeps it safe. Pre use checks and the inspection regime. Loading and securing materials so nothing falls out or fouls the mast. Keeping the landings clear and the gates closed. Refusing to run with a defect. Emergency procedures and what to do if the hoist stops between floors with people inside. Under LOLER, lifting equipment used for lifting people needs a thorough examination at least every six months, and the operator should know where that report is.
- The machine: mast and ties, car or cage, landing and car gates, interlocks, overload sensing, limit switches and emergency stop
- Safe working load, permitted passenger numbers where people are carried, and how a load has to be distributed in the car
- Pre use checks, the inspection regime and defect reporting, and the authority to stop using a hoist that is not right
- Loading and securing materials, keeping the car and the landings clear, and preventing anything falling down the mast
- Landing arrangements at each level, gate discipline, and managing the queue of people and materials waiting
- Emergency procedures, including what happens if the hoist stops between floors, and the six monthly thorough examination requirement for equipment that lifts people
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N111 Hoist category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where you hold the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo while your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date
- Enough trained operators to cover every shift rather than one named person the site cannot manage without
- Operators who will stop a hoist with a defective gate instead of working round it
Who should attend?
Site labourers, gangers, storemen, logistics and materials handling crews, and the supervisors responsible for a hoist on a build. It is a common early card for people working their way up on a site, and it is also the card a site needs several people to hold so there is always somebody available. If your interest is the platform that carries a gang up the facade rather than the hoist that serves the floors, the N119 Mast Climber is the category for that.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, fit enough for site work and comfortable working around a hoist and its landings, and able to follow spoken and written English for the theory test, though interpreters can be arranged on request. There is no prior card requirement and no prior experience is needed for the novice route. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years, which we book for you. Tell us at enquiry whether the hoist carries goods only or passengers as well, because the rules and the practical differ.
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.
Course content
What you will cover
A classroom session on the machine, the law and the loading, then the rest of the day on the hoist itself running loads between landings.
The machine, the law and the loading
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, LOLER 1998, PUWER 1998 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005 as they apply to hoists
- Goods hoists and passenger and goods hoists, and why carrying people changes the requirements
- Machine components: mast and ties, car or cage, landing and car gates, drive and controls
- Safety systems: interlocks, overload sensing, limit switches, emergency stop and overspeed devices
- Safe working load, passenger numbers and load distribution within the car
- Pre use checks, inspection regime, defect reporting and thorough examination intervals under LOLER
- Landing arrangements, gate discipline, materials waiting to go up and the area at the base of the mast
- Emergency procedures, including a hoist stopping between floors, and evacuation arrangements
Running the hoist
- Pre use checks of the car, the gates, the interlocks, the controls and the visible mast and ties
- Confirming the hoist is fit to work and reporting anything that is not
- Loading materials into the car, distributing and securing them
- Operating the hoist between landing levels under control and stopping accurately
- Managing the landings, the gates and the people waiting at each level
- Parking the car, isolating the hoist and securing it at the end of the shift
Method of assessment
How the N111 hoist test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test, both inside the day. The practical covers pre use checks, loading, running between landings and shutting down.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many people, where, and whether the hoist carries goods only or passengers as well. Four sit the novice course with one instructor and one machine; six are allowed on the experienced worker test. We quote per group.
2. Pre course check
We work out who is a novice, who is an experienced worker and who is due a refresher, check whether the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date for the CSCS logo version of the card, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
A classroom session on the machine, the law and the loading, then the rest of the day on the hoist, ideally the one already erected on your site.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation, machine components and safety systems, safe working load, gate discipline and emergency procedures.
5. Practical test
You carry out pre use checks, load and secure materials, run the hoist between landings, manage the gates and shut down, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your card. With a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment test it carries the CSCS logo, as a Red Trained Operator card or a Blue Competent Operator card if you hold the relevant NVQ.
After the course
One card, and the rest of the site logistics
A hoist sits in the middle of a site's material flow. Deliveries arrive at the gate, get unloaded, wait at the base of the mast and go up to the floors, and every one of those steps has a category behind it. Sites that train the whole chain get fewer damaged materials and fewer near misses at the mast base than sites that train the hoist operator alone. The N403 Vehicle Marshal covers the deliveries and the N402 Slinger Signaller covers anything that comes off a lorry on a crane.
Where the building also has a mast climbing work platform carrying gangs up the facade, that is a separate category, the N119, and a hoist card does not cover it. On the card itself, the NPORS category is the qualification and the CSCS logo is separate: the logo version needs a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years, which we book for you. Because a hoist is often the first card somebody holds, it is worth getting that test in date early.
- N403 Vehicle Marshal for the deliveries arriving at the base of the mast
- N402 Slinger Signaller for anything craned off a lorry rather than hoisted
- N119 Mast Climber where the facade work is done from a climbing platform
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us for the CSCS logo version of the card
Build your course
Who is coming, and how many
We do not run these to a timetable. The course is built around your people: how experienced they are and how many of them there are, which is what sets the length and the cost. Pick the mix and we will come back with a date and a price.
The course builder needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us how many people and what experience they have and we will price it up.
N111 Hoist FAQs
The N111 category covers construction hoists, and training is delivered against the machine on your site, whether that is a goods only hoist or a passenger and goods hoist. Tell us which you have, because carrying people brings stricter requirements, including a thorough examination at least every six months under LOLER.
One day, whichever route you take. The novice course teaches and tests inside the day, the experienced worker route is test focused, and the refresher covers updates then the tests. The difference is how much teaching there is, not how long you are with us.
NPORS allow four candidates with one instructor and one machine on the novice course and the refresher, and six on the experienced worker test. Training several people is worth doing anyway, so the site is not relying on one named operator.
Not for the novice route. It is a common early card for people working on site. If you already run a hoist day to day, the experienced worker route is the shorter, test focused option and allows six candidates.
Because that is where the incidents come from. An interlock stops the car moving with a gate open, and the moment somebody props a gate to save a trip, the protection is gone and there is an open shaft. A good part of the day is spent on why those systems exist and what happens when they are defeated.
No. Erection, alteration and dismantling are specialist operations for trained erection crews and sit outside this category. The course covers the mast and the ties so that an operator knows what to look at before they run the machine, not so they can build it.
The NPORS N111 category. Without an NVQ that is a Red Trained Operator card; with the relevant NVQ it is a Blue Competent Operator card. Either carries the CSCS logo only while you hold a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years.
Yes, and it is the sensible way. People train on the hoist they will run, at the landings they will serve, with the materials they will be sending up. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when it suits the job.
NPORS courses are priced per course, not per person. What you are paying for is the instructor, the registered tester and the machine time, so the figure turns on four things: the category, which route your operators need (novice, experienced, conversion or refresher), how many people are coming, and whether we run it on your site or at one of ours. It is also why a squad works out considerably cheaper per head than sending operators out one at a time. Use the course builder on this page: tell it who is coming and it works out how many days the course takes and how many times it has to run, which is what the price is built from. Then ask us and you will get a figure for that exact group rather than a list price with conditions attached.
We run NPORS courses across the UK rather than out of one fixed centre, and for most categories the better answer is that we come to you: your operators are assessed on the machine they will be using anyway, nobody loses a day travelling, and for a group it costs less. If you would rather come to us, we have centres at Trent House in Stoke, Pride Park in Derby, Europa House in Manchester and Kingsway House in Liverpool. Tell us where the work is and we will say honestly which way round makes more sense.
There is no fixed timetable to wait for. NPORS courses here are run to order, which means the dates are built around your programme rather than ours, and a single operator or a full squad can normally be booked in within a couple of weeks. If you have a card about to expire or a start date to hit, say so when you enquire and we will work to it.
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