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UKATA Asbestos Awareness for Groundworkers in Stoke-on-Trent
Half a day at our Stoke-on-Trent centre on asbestos in the ground rather than in a building. Made ground, buried demolition waste and contaminated soil appear on no asbestos register.
About this course
Standard asbestos awareness teaches people to look up at ceilings and risers. Groundworkers spend the day below the slab, where asbestos arrives by a completely different route: buried demolition rubble, made ground, fly tipping, old service runs and historic fill.
None of that shows on an asbestos register, because registers cover buildings. The first sign is usually a fragment of cement sheet in a bucket of spoil, by which point the machine has been working the ground for an hour.
North Staffordshire has a long industrial history and a lot of made ground to go with it, which makes this a course worth having rather than a box to tick. It follows the CAR-SOIL approach alongside CAR 2012.
The centre is Trent House, 234 Victoria Road, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2LW. Fenton sits just off the A50 and the A500, a few minutes from junction 15 of the M6, and Stoke-on-Trent station is a short taxi ride away.
We draw candidates from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, Crewe, Congleton, Leek, Cheadle, Uttoxeter, Market Drayton and the wider Staffordshire and south Cheshire area. If a date at Stoke-on-Trent does not suit, the same course runs at our other centres and we can deliver it at your own premises anywhere in the UK.
- What asbestos is and why it ends up in soil and made ground
- Asbestos related diseases, latency, and the multiplying effect of smoking
- The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 as it applies to groundworks
- The CAR-SOIL approach to asbestos in soil and made ground
- Why an asbestos register and a building survey will not help you
- Where asbestos turns up below ground: demolition arisings, fly tipping, old services, historic fill
- Recognising degraded asbestos containing material in spoil
- Why dry, dusty and windy conditions change the risk profile
- Desk study, site history and what should have been checked before you arrived
- Stopping work correctly: damp down, exclude, cordon, report
- Decontamination, plant cleaning and not carrying it home in your boots
How completing this course helps you
- A UKATA asbestos awareness for groundworkers certificate, valid for one year
- Crews who recognise asbestos in spoil rather than working through it
- Compliance with Regulation 10 for groundworks specifically
- A response that protects the crew, the neighbours and the programme
Who should attend?
Groundworkers and excavation crews across Staffordshire and south Cheshire, plant and machine operators, utilities and highways teams, drainage and civils contractors, remediation and demolition operatives, and the supervisors authorising the dig.
Entry requirements. None. No previous asbestos training is needed.
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.
At Stoke-on-Trent
What to expect on the day
The course is the same wherever you sit it. What changes is the room, the journey and the people in it, and those matter more than providers usually admit.
Our Stoke-on-Trent centre is Trent House, 234 Victoria Road, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2LW. Fenton sits just off the A50 and the A500, a few minutes from junction 15 of the M6, and Stoke-on-Trent station is a short taxi ride away. Joining instructions go out ahead of the course with timings, what to bring and where to go when you arrive.
If you are booking for a group and travel is the problem, we deliver this course at employers’ own premises anywhere in the country. For six or more people that is usually cheaper per head and nobody loses a day on the road.
Before the day
Joining instructions with timings, the address and what to bring. Tell us at booking if anybody needs support with reading, writing or access and we will sort it quietly.
On the day
Arrive a few minutes early. Bring photographic identification, which most awarding bodies require before they will certificate you.
Afterwards
We tell you the outcome and handle the registration and certification with the awarding body. If anything needs resitting we will get it booked.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
Asbestos and health
- What asbestos is and the three main types
- Asbestos related diseases and their latency
- The multiplying effect of smoking
- Why exposure in the open air is still exposure
Asbestos in the ground
- How asbestos gets into soil and made ground
- Buried demolition waste, historic fill and fly tipping
- Old service runs and buried cement products
- Why registers and building surveys do not cover it
- CAR-SOIL and the industry approach
- Desk study, site history and what should be known before ground is broken
On site
- Recognising degraded asbestos containing material in spoil
- Dry, dusty and windy conditions and how they change the risk
- Stopping work: damp down, exclude, cordon, report
- Who to tell and what happens next
- Decontamination of people, tools and plant
- Not taking it home
Method of assessment
How Asbestos Awareness for Groundworkers is assessed
Assessment runs through the session, with a short written check to close. Certification is issued through UKATA.
Recognition exercise
Identifying suspect material in photographs of spoil and excavations, which is considerably harder than identifying a ceiling tile and is exactly the point.
Written check
A short paper on the health effects, the routes into the ground and the stop sequence.
UKATA certificate
Issued on completion and valid for one year, with annual refresher expected.
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 Asbestos Awareness for Groundworkers 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
Asbestos Awareness for Groundworkers FAQs
Because the exposure route is different. Standard awareness is built around materials in buildings, found through a register and a survey. Groundworkers meet asbestos in soil and buried waste, which no building survey covers.
The Joint Industry Working Group guidance on managing asbestos in soil and made ground, sitting alongside the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. The course follows that approach.
Stop, damp it down if it is safe to do so, keep people back, cordon the area and report it. The course covers the sequence and, just as importantly, what not to do.
Trent House, 234 Victoria Road, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2LW. Fenton sits just off the A50 and the A500, a few minutes from junction 15 of the M6, and Stoke-on-Trent station is a short taxi ride away. Full joining instructions with timings go out before the course.
The same course runs at our other centres in Stoke-on-Trent, Derby, Manchester and Liverpool, and we deliver it at employers’ own premises anywhere in the UK. Tell us roughly when you need it and we will find something or put a date on.
Yes, anywhere in the country. For six or more people it normally works out cheaper per head than sending everybody to a centre, and we can build the day around your shift patterns.
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