Trina McAnulty and Paul Harrison have both received the Cyril McCauley Trophy for best papers in the LEEA (Lifting Equipment Engineers Association) correspondence courses, and Trina’s entry went on to win the Harry Brown Memorial Shield for Best Overall Paper out of all of this year’s national LEEA courses. She is the first woman in the history of the LEEA to have received this distinction. The prizes were presented at the Association’s AGM on Friday 23 November.
The LEEA correspondence course is a non-compulsory safety training course for the lifting goods and services industry. It runs for seven months and covers 20 specialised subjects, ranging from evaluating design, through to manufacture, assembly, testing, examination and certification. There are five courses per year (covering different areas) and the best papers from each course are then judged against each other for the Best Overall Paper.
Trina McAnulty, who is Certex’s HSEQ (Health, Safety, Environment and Quality) Manager based at the company’s head office in Harworth, Nottinghamshire, took the ‘General Lifting Gear’ qualification. Speaking of her success, she said: “The course has given me a really good understanding of the lifting gear industry and its legislative requirements. Although I had worked in related industries for a number of years before joining Certex, the LEEA diploma has provided me with a specialist knowledge that will enhance my day-to-day work.”
Paul Harrison is Lifting Centre Manager at Certex’s St Helens branch and has worked in the lifting industry for 14 years. He said: “The qualification gives a valuable insight to a whole range of specific procedures and requirements, and will really help when I am working with customers to provide solutions for their lifting requirements.
As a company, Certex has always invested heavily in staff training believing that it is vital to have employees that are both skilled and knowledgeable.
Kevin Smith, Operations Director at Certex and himself a former LEEA best paper winner, said: “The quality of the LEEA courses is outstanding and we encourage our staff to take part. This year we were able to enter 30 candidates from the company and the fact that two of the five best paper awards from the 2007 courses were won by Certex staff is a remarkable achievement.”
Certex – which operates mainly in the manufacturing, steel, construction, offshore, oil, gas and shipping industries – has a workforce of around 150 staff based at the company’s headquarters in Howarth, Nottinghamshire, and its 15 regional distribution centres.
