International certification organization TÜV visited International Powered Access Federation’s training center at HSS in Solihull, U.K., and confirmed IPAF’s compliance with ISO 18878:2004 mobile elevating work platforms — operator training. The American Work Platform Training program in North America meets all ANSI and OSHA requirements and is based on IPAF’s program.

“The conformity to all the requirements of ISO 18878 was completely affirmed,” said audit team leader Paul Latham from TÜV in the audit report. The audit report highlighted positive aspects such as IPAF’s continued development of the training program, operations manual and instructors through involvement and feedback with technical committees, manufacturers, associations and members; IPAF’s strong surveillance system; clear customer focus with full compliance to applicable regulations, and team approach to improvements involving training centers and customers.

“A TÜV auditor has actually observed a training course being conducted onsite,” said IPAF CEO Tim Whiteman. “This is our customers’ guarantee of quality — our voluntary submission to onsite audit by TÜV is unique and goes far beyond a check of paperwork held in our head office. The confirmation of compliance with ISO 18878 is an endorsement of our accredited training centers and our own internal auditing and quality control.”