Provision of training and assessment materials for the Advanced Industrial Drone Operations (IDO) in Engineering Construction Industry

ECITB has applied and successfully achieved match funding from the Swansea Bay City Deal, (SBCD) 'Skills and Talent project' fund, to further develop the ECITB IDO programme of courses. The funding has allowed ECITB to accelerate its development of skills for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) training and competence programme (IDO). The development of high-quality skills and competence is essential to fully utilise the advances is technology and use of UAS (Drones) in industry and reduce the impact of working at height whilst enhancing the inspection and maintenance of valuable national assets. The ECITB IDO programme does exactly this and also provides quality assured third party certification for the competence of UAS pilots at Foundation and Advanced levels. The development of the training materials for the Advanced course will complement the foundation and ensure a pipeline of pilots who are not only able to fly a UAV safely but also effectively, gaining valuable information on assets, topography, conduct surveys and enter confined and dangerous spaces limiting human involvement.