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NPORS Mobile Scaffold Towers Training (N706)
A mobile tower is the piece of access equipment most often built by somebody who has never been shown how. The NPORS N706 is a one day course that fixes that: how the tower is designed to go up, what the manual actually says, and why the tower that fell over was almost always missing the same three parts.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N706 Mobile Scaffold Towers different
About this course
The NPORS N706 Mobile Scaffold Towers category covers prefabricated aluminium mobile access towers: assembling them, altering them, moving them, inspecting them and working from them. Construction, fit out, maintenance, mechanical and electrical, painting, signage, warehousing and facilities. It is a one day course, which makes it one of the most practical bits of working at height training a firm can put in place.
Towers are covered by BS EN 1004-1:2020, the standard for mobile access and working towers, which applies to towers from zero to eight metres used outdoors and zero to twelve metres used indoors. The 2020 revision brought towers under two and a half metres into scope for the first time, requires double guardrails all the way round the platform, and reduced the maximum distances inside the tower: no more than 2.25 metres between platform levels, and no more than 3.4 metres from the ground to the first platform. Alongside the standard sit the Work at Height Regulations 2005, which is where the duty to plan, supervise and inspect comes from.
The practical heart of the course is the safe build method. A tower is designed so that the person assembling it is never stood on an unprotected platform: either the guardrails are fitted from the level below and the operative comes up through the trapdoor into a protected platform, or an advance guardrail unit is placed from below so that the protection is already there on arrival. The tower that overturns is nearly always missing the same things: the stabilisers the manual specifies, the correct bracing, or the castors locked. The tower that somebody falls from was nearly always built by someone working outside the guardrails. Both are avoidable in a day.
- The legal frame: the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and PUWER 1998, and the duty to plan, supervise and inspect
- BS EN 1004-1:2020 in plain terms, including the height ranges for indoor and outdoor use and the guardrail requirements
- The manufacturer's instruction manual: why it governs the build and where the maximum height for your base actually comes from
- Components, identification, condition and what to reject
- Safe build methods: through the trap and advance guardrail, and why building from an unprotected platform is not acceptable
- Stabilisers and outriggers: fitting them all, fitting the right ones, and fitting them before the tower goes up
- Ground conditions, castors and locking, moving a tower safely and who may be on it while it moves
- Inspection before first use and at intervals not exceeding seven days for construction work, and the record that goes with it
- Weather, wind, exclusion below the tower and dismantling in the reverse order
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N706 Mobile Scaffold Towers category on the candidate's NPORS record
- An NPORS card carrying the CSCS logo while a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass is in date
- A team that builds the tower the way the manual says rather than the way it has always been done
- Somebody on site who can complete the tower inspection record and mean it
Who should attend?
Construction and fit out trades, mechanical and electrical contractors, painters and decorators, signage and shopfitting, facilities and building maintenance, warehousing and manufacturing maintenance, and local authority and housing teams. It suits anyone who builds, alters, moves or works from a tower, not just the person who signs for it, because in practice a tower is assembled by whoever is there. Scaffolding beyond prefabricated towers is a different trade with its own qualifications and this category does not cover it.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen for most site work, fit enough to climb a tower and handle components, with a reasonable head for heights, and able to follow spoken and written English well enough for the theory test, with reading support available on request. Tell us about any condition affected by working at height, because the practical involves building and climbing a tower. No prior card or experience is needed. 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 can book. Tell us at enquiry what tower systems your team uses and whether you want the inspection record covered in detail.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the law, the standard and safe build methods, then practical assembly, alteration, movement, inspection and dismantling of a tower, finishing with the NPORS theory and practical test.
The law, the standard and the manual
- The Work at Height Regulations 2005: planning, supervision, the hierarchy and inspection duties
- PUWER 1998 as it applies to access equipment
- BS EN 1004-1:2020: scope, height ranges indoors and outdoors, guardrails and platform spacing
- The manufacturer's instruction manual as the governing document for the build
- Component identification, condition, compatibility and what to reject
- Safe build methods: through the trap and advance guardrail
- Stabilisers, outriggers, ballast and the base to height relationship the manual specifies
- Inspection before first use and at intervals not exceeding seven days for construction work, and recording it
- Wind, weather, ground conditions and exclusion zones below the tower
Building and using the tower
- Checking components before assembly and setting out on suitable ground
- Assembling a tower using a recognised safe build method throughout
- Fitting stabilisers correctly and at the right stage of the build
- Fitting platforms, trapdoors, toe boards and double guardrails
- Climbing and working from the tower correctly
- Moving a tower safely, including what must happen before it is moved
- Inspecting the tower and completing the inspection record
- Dismantling in the correct order and stacking components safely
Method of assessment
How the N706 mobile scaffold towers test works
NPORS assess the category with a theory test and a practical test on the tower. Both run with us, because Acadame is an NPORS test centre as well as a training provider, and the pass goes onto the candidate's record without a second booking.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many people need it and what tower systems you use. NPORS allow six candidates with one instructor and one tower on the training routes and eight on the experienced worker test. We quote per group, because the length follows the numbers.
2. Pre course check
We confirm the route each candidate needs, check whether the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date for the CSCS logo version, agree where the tower can be built and check the components are complete and in usable condition.
3. Training
Classroom on the law, the standard and safe build methods, then practical assembly, alteration, movement and dismantling on your own tower components.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation, the standard, components, safe build, stabilisers, inspection and moving a tower.
5. Practical test
You build a tower using a safe build method, fit stabilisers and guardrails correctly, inspect it, move it and dismantle it, assessed against the NPORS test specification for the category.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and the N706 category goes on the card. With a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment test the card carries the CSCS logo.
After the course
Where NPORS sits alongside PASMA
NPORS N706 covers erecting, altering, moving, dismantling and inspecting a mobile access tower to the manufacturer's instruction manual: components and their condition, a safe base, stabilisers and outriggers, guardrails and toe boards, safe methods of assembly, ties where they are needed, and the pre use and interval inspections a working platform has to have. PASMA runs the best known tower scheme in the UK and some clients specify it by name in their site rules. Where a client's requirement says PASMA, that is what you need, and we will tell you so. Check what the site actually asks for before booking, and if you are not sure, ask your principal contractor and we will work to the answer.
Whichever card your team holds, the tower is still built to the manufacturer's manual for that specific system, and components from different systems should not be mixed. The other thing to put in place is the inspection routine: for construction work, a working platform from which a person could fall more than two metres must be inspected before it is first used and at intervals not exceeding seven days, and the record needs to exist somewhere other than in somebody's memory. We leave you a plain summary of what that involves.
- A tower inspection record and a named person who completes it
- The manufacturer's instruction manual kept with each tower system
- N723 Harness and Fall Arrest where the same team also uses harness equipment
- 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.
N706 Mobile Scaffold Towers FAQs
They are two different schemes. PASMA is the best known tower scheme in the UK and a good number of clients specify it by name, in which case that is what you should book. NPORS N706 covers the erection, alteration, movement, dismantling and inspection of a mobile access tower, and the NPORS card carries the CSCS logo where the holder has a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment test. The practical question is what your site asks for, so check the requirement first and we will give you a straight answer.
One day, with a maximum of six candidates to one instructor and one tower on the novice and refresher routes. The experienced worker test allows eight, which is usually the practical way to get an existing gang carded in a single day.
Using a recognised safe build method, so that nobody is ever stood on an unprotected platform. Either the guardrails are fitted from the level below and the operative comes up through the trapdoor onto an already protected platform, or an advance guardrail unit is positioned from below. The manufacturer's manual for your system sets out which method applies.
BS EN 1004-1:2020 covers towers from zero to eight metres outdoors and zero to twelve metres indoors. The height any particular tower can safely reach comes from the manufacturer's instruction manual for that system, based on the base dimensions and the stabilisers fitted, which is why the manual has to be on site with the tower.
For construction work, a working platform from which a person could fall more than two metres is inspected before it is first used and at intervals not exceeding seven days, and after anything that could affect its stability. There is also a check before each use. The course covers what to look at and how to record it.
No. Before a tower is moved, everyone gets off, loose materials come off the platform, and the route and overhead clearance are checked. Moving a tower with someone on it is one of the quickest ways to turn a stable structure into an overturn.
No. Components are designed and tested as a system and mixing manufacturers invalidates the manual the tower was built to. Part of the practical is identifying components and rejecting anything that does not belong or is damaged.
Yes, and it is the better option because the team learns on the system they will actually use, with its own manual. We need a clear area to build in and a complete set of components. There are no scheduled dates, so we can run it around your programme.
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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