TEP held a week-long ENSA “Train the Trainer” Tower Climbing course the week of January 25-29th, 2016. Participants included Brad Little, Mike Gardner, Trent Johnston, and Matt Collins.  ENSA training provided an excellent opportunity for a core group to learn new techniques and tower climbing skills that TEP can use to improve upon current standards for safely working at heights. We spoke with Brad Little, who participated in the training, about his thoughts, challenges, acquired skills, and best moments of the training:

“The insight that our instructor, Rob, was able to provide from a broad range of fields and experiences was very informative and enriched our current working knowledge of rope access and climber safety as it pertains to what we do daily.  The training at times was physically demanding, but enjoyable and rewarding to be given the opportunity to excel in our primary goal, to provide industry leading safety training and standards for our employees.  I think that we all excelled in basic climbing and rescuing principles and could build off those and learn techniques not previously known.  The entire week was a constant comic reel of funny comments, jokes, and actions by everyone in the class, including the instructor.  The highlight of the training was on Friday when each of us performed a tower rescue while blindfolded. I look forward to expanding the skills and knowledge we received and working with our team to further develop our safety procedures and training to support the growth of the company in the years ahead.”

ENSA will now be the official certification program for TEP’s tower climbers, replacing ComTrain and Gravitec.  The participants are now certified trainers and will be working together to schedule training for new climbers as well as current climbers prior to their current certifications expiration.