On June 7, at the Hilton Bankside Hotel, London, the alarm manufacturer Aico was awarded, for a second successive year, the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) Best Supply Chain Initiative Award, for its Expert Installer training scheme.
That’s free training run by Aico for electrical contractors to install domestic fire and carbon monoxide alarms. The training is modular, allowing customers to choose the appropriate topics. Many of the modules are CPD accredited, allowing up to five hours 15 minutes to be earned of CPD time.
Tina Mistry, Regional Specification Manager, Aico, attended the ECA awards evening. She said: “It is fantastic to win this award. Training the electrical industry and sharing best practice is what we passionately do on a daily basis.”
The training options are a dedicated training centre, Mobile Training and Demonstration Units and training held at customer’s premises. Aico’s Centre of Excellence is a purpose-built training and meeting facility in Oswestry, Shropshire. A workshop for hands-on training has a smoke chamber to view alarms in action and ‘Ember Place’ – a furnished bungalow fitted with suitable Aico products. Aico’s Mobile Training & Demonstration Units are scaled down mobile versions and enable training to be delivered right to customers doors.
Ross Cheeseman, Director, Luro Electrical says of the scheme: “We have been fitting Aico Alarms for eight years now. We only use Aico Alarms as they are the most reputable brand and are market leaders. Expert Installer is fantastic, it was helpful in knowing what new products are coming and the changes to legislation, including BS 5839 and Scottish legislation. It was also interesting to know what products are best suited to what areas. The mobile unit is brilliant, it is much more interesting than sitting for hours in front of a slide show. The amount of information we got through in three hours was educational. Other manufacturers mainly do presentations on product but Aico goes well beyond that and delivers it in a more engaging way. It enabled us to have a good discussion after the training as well. I feel it gives us the confidence as a contractor to suggest and advise clients rather than just taking instruction from the client. Expert Installer is 100pc valuable to the industry.”
Visit www.aico.co.uk/expertinstaller.
