This year, Paul Barrett, Regional Specification Manager for Aico, has been working with JTL Training in Ashford, Kent to provide their students with Aico’s free, award-winning FIA-approved CPD Expert Installer course.
JTL is one of the largest work-based learning providers in England and Wales, working with over 3,800 businesses from large corporations to small local suppliers. JTL are currently working with over 8,000 learners and train more apprentices than anyone else in the building services and engineering sector.
Aico’s Expert Installer Training course is designed to ensure Electrical Contractors have all the information they need to install domestic Fire and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Systems. Guaranteeing effective fire safety protection for customers relies on alarm systems being installed correctly. It is important that young people who are entering the work environment are given the correct information to do what they should do rather than what they have to do when it comes to installing life safety devices.
The students at JTL were also provided with information and a demonstration of Aico’s HomeLINK Connected Home Solution. The system can extract and collate data directly from alarm heads and Environmental Sensors and be made available from a user-friendly dashboard. These actionable insights enable preventative measures and proactive maintenance of landlords’ housing portfolios.
Paul Barrett commented, “Educating future generations is one of the most rewarding parts of my role. It has been great to work with Russell Griffiths and Dave Cunningham educating their students on the importance of installing Domestic Fire and CO alarms to British Standards BS 5839-P6 and BS 50292. It is now becoming an annual event and I hope we can roll the training out to all their colleges.”
JTL’s Senior Electrical Tutor, Russell Griffiths helped to organise the sessions, adding, “I have been teaching electrical installations for 17 years and it has always baffled me that fire alarms do not form more of a part of the qualification than they do. So, with this in mind, I made an approach to Paul Barrett of Aico to see if the company could provide CPD to our learners here at JTL Ashford.
“On meeting with Paul, I could tell that Aico were going to be very proactive partners in the assistance they were to give us, and it was fantastic to hear about the Expert Installer course that they could provide for our learners. We arranged a date for Paul to come in and deliver the training and I have to say it was of great benefit to our learners. Students were actively engaged from start to finish and all provided with a certificate of completion, that they can add to their CPD files and off the job training logs.
“All learners found the session very useful and were happy with gaining a better understanding of domestic smoke alarm systems and the different types of protection offered with Aico products. Paul was very professional and able to deliver a good session to our learners with his expert knowledge.
“Moving forward, Paul has arranged for a bespoke display board to be made for our workshop enabling the learners to have access to not only demonstrate products but also can be made live to enable learners to test functionality. I hope that we can have Paul back every year to deliver to our learners, because the service that Aico and Paul provide is a valuable addition to our curriculum here and I believe that it should be used widely throughout our organisation.”Supporting education is a big focus for Aico and they have a dedicated team of 29 RSMs, delivering fully accredited CPD courses across the UK. If you would like to find out more, you can find your local RSM here – https://aico.co.uk/find-a-regional-spec-manager/
