A Scottish contractor that carries out maintenance and repair work on hard-to-reach places has spent £30,000 on kitting out its first training centre in Inverness.
Rope Access Scotland and NDT Services upped sticks after 15 years on Skye, where it had been hamstrung by a lack of indoor facilities, though the company will maintain on office on the Isle.
Director and founder Ruairidh MacDonald yesterday said he hopes the rented facility on Stadium Road in Inverness will help the firm attract more work and increase its staff base of 18.
The firm uses climbing and caving techniques to train technicians to reach otherwise inaccessible or dangerous places such as bridges, rock faces, piers, towers and the underside rigs, where they then carry out inspection and repair work.
Much of the company’s energy sector work takes the form of derrick inspection and bolt repairs and painting on rigs holed up in Dundee and Invergordon.
Onshore work is mainly geotechnical and includes soil stabilisation and rock fall prevention.
The company, which turned over £650,000 last year, fulfils contracts using its own employees and a large database of welders, riggers, joiners, electricians, painters and slaters.
Many of the people who are currently training in Inverness are ex-servicemen who want to work in rope access offshore, said Mr MacDonald, who worked offshore before setting up Rope Access Scotland.
Mr MacDonald added: “A lot of guys train with us and do an NDT (non-destructive testing) course of pipe work and metal work. They can access under rigs and get down the legs. Some are welders, some are electricians.”
As well as offering roped access maintenance services and training, the company also provides defect monitoring on concrete using a so-called tell-tale device, which can measure whether a crack in a wall is spreading and by how much.
The firm’s clients have included the Defence Ministry, as well as Esso and Shell.