NPORS Horizontal Directional Drilling Rig Training (N130)

Operating a horizontal directional drilling rig: setting up and anchoring it, drilling and steering a pilot bore, handling rods, reaming and pulling back the duct or pipe, running the drilling fluid system and shutting the rig down safely.

Five days for a novice, with three candidates to one instructor and one machine. An experienced driller sits a shorter test focused route with up to six candidates, and a refresher is shorter again. We confirm the length when we quote.

Tracking the head and steering to the line is part of operating the rig, so it is covered. The wider skill of locating and proving services is its own category, the N304 Cable Avoidance Tool, and on most crews it is worth holding both.

That is exactly why the course spends time on it. A strike can energise the rig and the ground around it rather than simply stopping work, so the training covers prevention first, then strike alert arrangements, safe standing positions and the actions the crew take, including what nobody should touch.

Drilling fluid finding its way to the surface instead of back to the pit, sometimes well away from the bore. It is a containment and environmental problem as well as a slip hazard, and the course covers spotting it, containing it and cleaning it up.

The NPORS N130 category on an NPORS card. 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.

If the work is in the public highway, yes, those requirements apply in their own right and the NPORS card does not replace them. We run street works training separately and can tell you what a job in the highway needs.

Yes, and it is the better option because rigs, locators and fluid systems differ so much. Your crew trains on the kit they use, on the sort of crossing they actually drill. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when your people and your rig can be released.

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.