Latest News & Articles

Fine for Trench Support Collaspe

A worker laying a drainage pipe at a holiday park suffered serious injuries when a trench he was working in collapsed on top of him. The employee was helping to lay the pipe at a Leisure Park on July 23 2010, when the wall of the two metre deep trench caved in. He was dug out by others at the scene before the emergency services arrived but had suffered multiple fractures to his skull, jaw and ch...

Fund your Programmes!

Merit Skills Ltd has successfully been awarded further funding for work based learning qualifications.

The team are really pleased to have secured this funding as it will allow them to offer funding to those clients wishing to support their employees through the new QCF qualifications.

Maria Fulluck of Merit Skills commented "successfully securing funding for work based learning programmes a...

E Portfolios Launched

Merit Skills are please to announce that our first pilot of group of candidates using eportfolios is to commence. The first group will be 15 learners working within the water industry.

Merit Skills is committed to helping the environment and reducing our own carbon footprint as well as supporting our customers strategic plans with regards to the environment.

This is the first cohort of many...

Confined Space Accident - Safety Alert

A safety alert has been issued by SBWWI regarding a recent confined space accident. The safety alert demonstrates that what appears to be straight forward working activities can have tragic consequences.

A worker suffered severe brain damage as a result of entering a confined space to read a water meter. He had not used his equipment to check whether the atmo...

New Apprenticeship Incentives

The apprentice service has issued the following article regarding their new incentive aimed at encouraging SME's to take on apprentices.

On 16th November 2011, the government announced a new incentive to encourage thousands of small firms that don't currently employ apprentices to take on a young apprentice aged 16 to 24. This will support up to 40,000 new Apprenticeships. The incentive is for...

First Candidates in the UK

We are pleased to announce that a group of their Certificate in Leakage Detection candidates are the first in the country to complete the qualification. All the candidates work for Mouchel and have been working towards there qualifications for the past 6 months. Each candidate has had to build a portfolio or evidence as well as been observed within the workplace carrying out tasks within the rem...

New National Qualifications Offer A Credible Alternative

New qualifications on the market are making it easier to gain nationally recognised accreditation after attending shorter courses and successfully completing an in centre assessment.

There are new water industry qualifications available now that enable people to have their skills formally recognised.

Short training courses followed by assessment for a variety of water industry subjects are o...

Merit Skills Becomes Approved Provider For Jointing Composite Barrier Pipes

Merit Skills is please to announced that they are the approved provider for GPS Protecta Line - Jointing of Composite Barrier Pipes.

Furthermore after successful trials Anglian Water have extended the electrofusion joining of Proctecta-Line water mains to self lay organisations as well.

Information regarding traiing and assessment can be found under the [water networks sections of our websit...

SSSTS Courses Running

The Site Supervisors Safety Training Scheme commonly known as SSSTS is now being run from our training centre in Yaxley due to popular demand from both existing and new clients.

Maria Fulluck of Merit Skills said 'being able expand our product portfolio is fantastic, it is vital that we listen to our customers and respond with solution which is both value for money and a quality offering.'

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Trench Safety Courses Are a Huge Hit With Customers

Merit Skills are pleased to report that they have successfully completed their first eight EUSR recognised Trench Safety and Support training courses. Courses for both operators and supervisors have be well attended by a mixture of utility company and civil engineering candidates. Operators are taught to recognise the risks in a variety of excavation situations and apply a range of different safet...

Asbestos - Can Your Team Recognise the Risks?

The HSE (Health and Safety Executive has announced this week that Marks and Spencer plc and two of its contractors have been convicted for putting members of the public, staff and construction workers at risk of exposure to asbestos-containing materials during the refurbishment of two stores.

Asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the U...

Companies fined £640,000 for double deaths in a confined space

Two companies have been fined a total of £640,000 following the death of two fish farm workers on a barge moored at a salmon farm on Loch Creran, Argyll & Bute.

Scottish Sea Farms worker, Campbell Files and engineer Arthur Raikes - employed by Logan Inglis Limited, Cumbernauld - were fixing a hydraulic crane on the barge when they went below deck to find cabling and pipework.

The oxygen leve...