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NPORS Screener Training (N208)
A screener looks like the safest machine on the site, which is exactly the problem. Nobody is crushed by a screen box while it is running: they are hurt clearing a blocked deck, changing a mesh or reaching into a conveyor that was never isolated. Three days on the machine, the isolation and the stockpile, on your own plant.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N208 Screener different
About this course
The NPORS N208 Screener category is the operator card for mobile screening plant: tracked and wheeled machines that separate material by size, from scalping screens ahead of a crusher to inclined multi deck screens grading aggregate and trommels handling soil, compost and waste. They are used in quarrying, recycling, waste transfer, demolition, construction and forestry.
Three days for a novice covers the machine: the feed hopper and feeder, the screen box, its decks and meshes, the oversize, mid grade and fines conveyors, the power unit and hydraulics, the tracks or wheels, the guarding, and the emergency stops and isolation points. It covers the pre operational and running checks, the greasing and the defect reporting the handbook requires, and how the plant is moved, positioned and set up safely on ground that will carry it.
The rest is what actually goes wrong. Blockages and bridging in the hopper and on the decks, and the isolation procedure before anybody touches them. Mesh changes, which mean working at height, manual handling and stored energy in a tensioned screen. Conveyor nip points and the habit of clearing a belt while it runs. Feeding the plant with an excavator or a loading shovel and the exclusion zone that goes with it. Stockpile management, because conveyor stockpiles hide voids and collapse under anyone who climbs them. And the dust and noise that the operator is exposed to all shift.
- The machine: feed hopper and feeder, screen box, decks and meshes, conveyors, power unit, hydraulics and tracks
- Pre operational and running checks, greasing, belt and mesh condition and defect reporting
- Moving, positioning and setting the plant up on ground that will carry it, and levelling it correctly
- Isolation: stop, isolate, lock off and prove dead before clearing a blockage or working on the machine
- Changing meshes safely, including the working at height, manual handling and stored energy involved
- Feeding the plant, managing stockpiles and conveyors, and controlling dust and noise exposure
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N208 Screener category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- The traditional NPORS card for quarry and recycling work, or the CSCS logo version for construction sites
- Operators who isolate before they clear, which is the difference between a delay and an amputation
- A consistent standard across a processing site, which is what a client, an auditor or an insurer asks to see
Who should attend?
Quarries and aggregate producers, recycling and waste transfer sites, demolition contractors, soil and compost processors, topsoil and landscaping suppliers, and plant operators moving across from loading shovels, excavators and crushers. It suits operators who have run a screen for years without a card as much as new starters, and there is a route for each.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, fit enough for the work including climbing on and around the plant, and able to follow spoken and written English for the theory test, though an interpreter can be arranged on request. No prior card is required, though experience on other plant helps and often shortens the route. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass at Operatives level within the last two years, which we book for you. Tell us at enquiry what plant you run and what material you screen, because the practical is built around it.
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
Classroom on the machine, the law and isolation, then the bulk of the time on the plant setting up, running and shutting down, with testing at the end.
The machine, the law and isolation
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998 as they apply to processing plant, including guarding
- The manufacturer's handbook and the operator's responsibilities under it
- Machine components: hopper and feeder, screen box, decks and meshes, conveyors, power unit and hydraulics
- Safe isolation: stopping, isolating, locking off, proving dead and restoring the machine to service
- Blockages and bridging, why people are hurt clearing them and the procedure that stops it
- Mesh selection and changing, tension and stored energy, and the manual handling involved
- Set up: ground bearing, levelling, position relative to the feed and the stockpiles, and site traffic
- Dust, noise and vibration exposure, and the environmental controls on a processing site
Setting up and running the screen
- Pre operational and running checks, greasing, belt and mesh condition and defect reporting
- Tracking or towing the plant into position and setting it up level on suitable ground
- Starting the plant in the right sequence and setting the feed rate
- Running the screen, monitoring the product and managing the stockpiles and conveyors
- Isolating and locking off, then clearing a blockage or changing a mesh, and returning to service
- Shutting down in sequence, folding and securing the plant and leaving the site safe
Method of assessment
How the N208 screener test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test. Training and testing run together, with the practical covering checks, set up, running, isolation and shut down.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many operators, where, what plant you run and what you screen. Three 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 sort who is a novice, who is an experienced worker and who is due a refresher, agree whether the traditional NPORS card or the CSCS logo version fits your work, and take the details NPORS need to register.
3. Training
Classroom on the machine, the duties and isolation, then the bulk of the time on the plant, ideally on your own site with your own material.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation, machine components, set up, isolation, blockages and mesh changes, and safe operating practice.
5. Practical test
Checks, positioning and setting up, starting and running the screen, isolating to clear or adjust, and shutting down, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for the card, traditional or with the CSCS logo depending on where your operators work.
After the course
Nothing on a processing site works alone
A screener is one machine in a line. Something feeds it, usually an excavator or a loading shovel, and something takes the product away. Where the site also crushes, the crusher and the screen are often set up as one train and the same operator runs both. NPORS cover the crusher as its own category, and a site that puts people through both ends up with operators who understand the whole flow rather than one machine in it.
The other thing worth planning is the ground around the plant. Screeners are fed by machines working close to them, they build stockpiles that people and vehicles then work under, and the feed area is where plant and pedestrians end up sharing space. A marshal, clear exclusion zones and a stockpile rule that nobody climbs them are worth more than another sign. We will look at the whole layout with you rather than only at the machine.
- N207 Crusher where the site runs a crusher in the same train
- N209 Loading Shovel for the machine feeding the screen and shifting the product
- N133 Plant and Machinery Marshal where plant and people share the feed area
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us only where the CSCS logo version of the card is needed
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.
N208 Screener FAQs
Mobile screening plant that separates material by size: scalping screens, inclined multi deck screens and trommels, tracked, wheeled or towed. If the machine reduces material rather than grading it, that is a crusher and the category is N207. Many sites run both and many operators hold both.
Three days for a novice, with three candidates to one instructor and one machine. An operator already running a screen normally takes the shorter experienced worker route, where NPORS allow six candidates, and the refresher is shorter again. We confirm the length when we quote.
Because that is where people are hurt. A screen running normally does not injure anybody: the injuries happen when a deck is blocked, a mesh needs changing or a belt needs clearing and the machine was not isolated, locked off and proved dead first. The course treats that routine as the core skill.
Yes. Mesh selection, the tension and stored energy in a screen, the manual handling and the work at height involved in getting up on the box are all part of it, because a mesh change is one of the most dangerous routine jobs on the machine.
No. They are separate NPORS categories, even where the two machines work as one train and the same person runs both. Experience on one usually shortens the route for the other, and we will say so.
For quarrying, waste and recycling the traditional NPORS card is normally the right one and does not depend on a CITB test that expires separately. Where the same operators also work on construction sites they need the CSCS logo version, which requires a current CITB Health, Safety and Environment test.
Yes, and it is usually better. Operators train on your plant, your material and your ground, including the awkward set up position everybody complains about, and nobody loses days travelling. We need the plant available and in a testable condition.
Three on the novice course and the refresher, six on the experienced worker test. Larger groups get sequenced across more than one course, because the ratio is what gives each operator real time on the machine.
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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