VMT was formed out of the desire to promote and develop skills, in an ever increasingly regulated industry. Client’s demands in terms of obtaining competency, complying with legislation and demonstrating best practice can seem like a minefield.  While these requirements and the growing expectation within the Industry is a positive step towards ensuring the high standards that we need within the profession, it can seem like a minefield. It is our job at VMT to enable customers navigate this maze of seemingly endless requirements and help them “see the wood for the trees!”

To achieve this VMT have adopted real world training solutions, tailored wherever possible to represent our customers working environment and requirements. The accrediting bodies selected are chosen for their real world presence and influence.

The training facilities and resources, combining classroom, workshop and outdoor work environments represent some of the best available within Northamptonshire. Our Islip Training Centre, just outside Thrapston, houses our main classroom and landscape based learning as well as a fully equipped workshop for Chainsaw Maintenance and Cross Cutting. Access to tree stock is key and our Boughton Estate workshop has access to a plentiful supply along with suitable tracks and trails for ATV and 4×4 training.

Our instructors are chosen for their real life experience and ability to engage and develop our learners. They have all worked in their chosen field for an extensive length of time and are assessed regularly by their accrediting bodies for their teaching and assessment.

Whilst newcomers to the industry will need training and support to develop through the profession, we firmly believe that training is not just for novices and encourage our attendees to remain on top of current best practice by attending refreshers. As HSE guidance changes it is both the employers and individuals responsibility to be aware of the guidance/requirements and developments in technology and technique to make us more efficient and safe as well as ensuring that you are adequately insured while you are working.

We offer a range of training management services from ad hoc training or full development plans for individuals to larger scale, planned training programs for large companies. To find out how we can help you, just get in touch.

With our wealth of experience and expertise, VMT have extended it’s services to provide Professional Arboricultural Management Services to organisations, contractors and individuals alike.

Our Tree Management Service provides a comprehensive service that can range from a simple Tree Condition report to full Tree Surveys, Management Plans and preparation work for Planning consent, Conservation Areas and TPOs.

Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) 

These Regulations (often abbreviated to LOLER) place duties on people and companies who own, operate or have control over lifting equipment. This includes all businesses and organisations whose employees use lifting equipment, whether owned by them or not. In most cases, lifting equipment is also work equipment so the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) will also apply (including inspection and maintenance). All lifting operations involving lifting equipment must be properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised and carried out in a safe manner. (HSE) 

Thorough examinations and inspections of lifting equipment 

Safe and successful lifting operations depend, in large part, on the continued safety of the lifting equipment and accessories that are used. Failures in this kind of equipment can result in significant or even fatal injuries. Health and safety law therefore places a number of specific obligations on those providing, controlling and using lifting equipment to properly manage these risks. 

In addition to the requirements for safe design and construction, all lifting equipment should also be checked and maintained as necessary to keep it safe for use, so: 

• users may need to undertake simple pre-use checks (eg on lifting chains and slings), or make checks on a daily basis (eg for lift trucks) 
• in some cases, inspections and checks should be made on a regular basis, often weekly, but this may be on a monthly or quarterly basis (eg the checks undertaken by an operator on their crane) 
• employers should ensure that lifting equipment is thoroughly examined (normally once or twice a year but, in some cases, this may be more or less frequent) 

These checks are necessary to verify that the lifting equipment can continue to be safely used. This page concentrates on thorough examination and inspection, and the reporting and record-keeping obligations of LOLER (regulations 9, 10 and 11). 

As part of the compliance with LOLER all climbing kits must be checked by a Competent Person on a 6 monthly basis (12 monthly for Rigging kits). With a vast array of experience our resident LOLER Inspector not only teaches the LOLER course but can carry out kit examinations at either our Islip Training Centre or at client’s own site. 

To help support pre use checks, we are proud to host the loler.vmt Instagram site which aims to help all users recognize defects in their kit before it gets to a LOLER inspection.