Pumpcrete is proud to have the first licensed concrete pump operators in North America and possibly Worldwide. This has been a long process which I have lobbied for, for the past 15 years. It's wonderful that our trade finally has licensed journeypersons.

That is great, now what does it mean? The unlicensed can not operate? More regulation? Governing? Enforcement? Who payes for that? If a guy gets a bad load and the pour goes wrong, he gets his license suspended and can not feed his family pending the outcome of an investigation? I agree with proper training but I would rather see the ACPA involved with insurability and wkmns comp. How about workmans comp offering major discounts for ACPA certs. etc... Safety is always good, MORE red tape is not at all attractive IMO ****just keep your hands out of my cookie jar****

This is a move in the right direction. We need pumping to be a trade and a 4 yr apprenticeship program not this 4week or less training program and then toss you to the wolves to see how you fair stuff that goes around. how does one get certified??

Stupid move, once you have licensed operators wage demands will go sky high.

Owners, what happens when you licensed operator doews not turn up for work and you have a

400 yd pour starting in an hour? who do you get to operate the pump?

I'm all for training, but once site unions catch on ... watch out.

Hell for over at least ten years people are shouting we don’t want to see rookies on a pump and see pumps going down because of poorly training.

And then a company takes the responsibility to get his operators certificated and the first reactions shoot them out of the air.

My first question is where I can get this certification so we can get to the next level.   

Digger what happens if you have a crane on site but not a licend operator

If a building site have a crane you will always see a crane operator around even there is no crane work. But for the pump they can hire every fool that say he is able to push the button. And believe me if you know how to push the buttons operating a crane is a lot easier than a pump. 

At the present time a concrete pump operator license is only offered to Ontario, Canada residents. For new applicants a 5 week in school course and 2,000 hours apprenticeship is required. There is also a grandfathering application offered for those who have the required training and experience. After 40 years of working in this industry I am proud to be recognised for my ability similar to that of our crane operators.

Really how f@#%&^g ignorant are some people. " Stupid move" After years of pumps going over condolences being sent to greiving families and someone has the nerve to say stupid move, wages will go up.  Put your rates up for f@#$s sake to cover it.  As Super said everybody will slam every picture shown here, no dunnage blah blah blah and then you have the nerve to slam a province and one of the people who helped implement it.  To me if it saves one life one trip to the hospital or one day that is not lost to injury or death then this is a good thing.  Tell me one thing to all the people who say this is stupid.  Can you go knock on a door and tell a wife, mother , father, or child that their son, father or husband isn't coming home because  I didn't support training programs like Ontario is implementing because I might have to pay more money to my employees, and walk away with a clear conscience.  If you can you are not the type of people this industry needs.

In Clark W. Griswolds words Hallejuja holy shit wheres the tylenol 

is it different in other states? because in Massachusetts you need a hoisting/hydraulic license to legally run a pump

The statement at the beginning of this thread says nothing about training, Just licensing. ACPA safety certification is already available. I have studied and passed all the ACPA tests and learned alot in the process. Licensing an operator will not make him any safer an operator than a drivers license will make you a better driver. Proper training WILL make you safer but will never eleminate all accidents. Personally, I am against short rigging ANYTIME, no matter what, period! Shortrigging is the leading cause of tip overs and if I had it my way there would be safety lock-outs to prevent every boom from unfolding unless the outriggers were fully extended.  Sinking is next. I usually insist the larger projects provide trench plates during the wet months for the duration of the project and I provide the superintendant with a schematic of placement location requirements for my outriggers so the trench plates are in place when I pull up. As for requiring a License to operate a boom safely... no thanks... but require that any and all operators are ACPA safety certified before issuing liability insurance and comp coverage to the pump company... HELL YEA! make it a crime to operate without safety certs.

Would have preferred to see the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities involved in the certification process.

The apprenticeship requirements are very well detailed and obviously designed by professional pumpers.

This does give needed credibility to the trade, congrats on your work.

I sat on the the committee back in 2008 with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universites. This is where we wrote the current Apprenticeship Training Standard that has been adopted by the Ontario College of Trades.

Great job Ken. Training and education is a good thing. Higher wages should not be a problem either. Just charge for them right! I wish the union we hire through would develop and provide training for concrete pump operators. However, the apprenticeship component would be a problem as we would be required to have a one operator piece of equipment be run by two people and we would not be able to recover the cost from the customer. How did you handle the apprenticeship?

Finaly someone that takes stuff in the right direction. Congratulations! You have my full support. I have been shouting for years we should have this. Why should the ACPA be involved? They could have done this years ago but they didn't. So why should they suddenly be involved now?

And indeed what would you do if your cranedriver suddenly gets sick? Put an uncertified guy on the crane? Ofcourse not. So why would you do that with pumps?

Before giving my opinion, I want to make a few things clear so my comments aren't taken out of context

I LOVE TRAINING.   At our workplace we follow ACPA guidelines plus a host of internal best practices.

In Ontario we have the ACPA, Local 793, the RMCAO (Ready Mix Concrete Association), and now the Ontario College of Trades all offering training programs.   I wish there was a way that everyone could work together as opposed to in parallel, but with politics and varying agenda's, its unlikely to ever get down to one training program, but I will see what I can do over the next couple years.

Keep in mind that I know relatively little about the The Ontario College of Trades other than what I've been told and seen first hand, I believe this is the organization that is trying to make a trade (and revenue stream) out of every skilled worker in Ontario

Two examples:

1. My brother-in-law is a licensed 310T mechanic, ranked in the top 16 nationwide of all General Motors mechanics in Canada.   The Ontario College of Trades is attempting to force their way into his workplace (and every other shop for that reason) and license an already licensed trade

2.  The last time I got my hair cut, the girls at First Choice hair cutters were really bent out of shape that the Ontario College of Trades was attempting to make a trade out of hair styling and charge them a fee accordingly.   Honestly, hair styling, I'm not making this up.  They were so upset that they gave me a wallet card that said in bold letters "STOP THE TRADES TAX".  

I did nothing with that wallet card until I read this post a few minutes ago, when I pulled it out of my business card stash.   So I went to www.stopthetradestax.ca which is now www.ontarioskilledtradesalliance.com.   This is an advocacy group that questions the mandate of the Ontario College of Trades and their approach to whatever their mandate is (I haven't figured their mandate out yet or I'd comment on it). 

All I can conclude is that if the Daily Commercial News, Yahoo Finance, and the National Post are all questioning the Ontario College of Trades, then I'm going to look into it more.

Again - I love training, and am all for being certified if it means better safety protocol.  Let's just do it for safety's sake, and not just to say we did.

Eric

Question for Ken : Why didn't the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities follow through and support the Apprenticeship  rather than the "new guys" ?

Australia has had tickets for pump operators for many years.

They are required to get 100 hours of experience in a log book then tested by an authorised assessor.

in saying that, its still not difficult to get a ticket. people can fudge the hours and it depends on how 

strict your assessor decides to be on the day. 

but thats got to be better than a few hours on the hose then throw you out on a pump.

The Ontario College of Trades does not offer training so to speak only testing, accessment and licensing similar to getting a drivers license. In order to receive a license you must provide proof of hours and that you have completed all the learning skill sets in the Apprenticeship Training Standard. The current criteria for a new apprentice is a 5 week in school training course and 2,000 hours on job training. This is similar to a crane operator with less hours required. As far as the Ministry of Training Colleged and Universities not following through, I can't amswer that, as I was disappointed as well after developing the standard.

Thanks Ken .

Where do you get the classroom training in Ontario?

The classroom training is currently being held twice a year in Oakville at the 793 hall. If you are interested let me know.

Ken, what time of year is the 5 week  course held ?

One course is in process right now and another one in the spring.

Any word on when the licensed or ACPA opertors mite get a level stone road to set up on every job?

A level stone road to set up on every job? Is this serious??