Posted on 20 Mar 18
Employees from the UK’s leading trampoline park operator, Oxygen Freejumping, are the first to gain the new Level 2 Trampoline Park Court Monitor qualification.
The first formal training qualification of its kind, it has been developed by Right Directions, the UK’s leading health and safety quality management experts, for the sector and been given Active IQ Regulated Qualification status.
Oxygen currently has nine sites, each with between 30 and 60 frontline staff. Forty Court Monitors at its Derby site have now gained the qualification, which requires them to complete a three-day training course including practical scenarios and workshops; as well as holding an Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) qualification. Staff at the other eight sites have also already embarked up on the training and should be qualified in the next couple of months.
“This is the first publicly available training accreditation for the sector and should provide a quality benchmark that all operators adhere to, “says David Stalker, CEO of Oxygen Freejumping. “There is too much variation across operators currently with huge gaps in quality, training and ultimately customer safety. The qualification provides a means of every operator improving their standards.”
The qualification is valid for three years and court monitors will be required to complete work-based CPD as part of the retention of the certification, which will be completed in-house as ongoing training. Staff will be required to attend a one-day refresher course every three years and renew their Emergency First Aid certificate.
“We are delighted to have become the first to put our staff through this qualification,” says David Stalker, “It’s important for all our Court Monitors to gain this new qualification as they are doing a very important job and are responsible for ensuring the safety of all our Freejumpers which is our primary concern. Secondly, we want to invest in and grow our teams to ensure our Court Monitors can see a career with Oxygen Freejumping: investing in their development is integral to this.”
Talking about what the qualification means to industry Stalker added:
“This qualification is a robust programme accredited by Active IQ” adds Stalker. “It demonstrates to our customers that we take their safety very seriously. We are not simply putting anyone in an Oxygen uniform, rather we are carefully recruiting and training our team who have all passed a recognised accreditation. It should reassure all our customers that they will receive excellent service at any Oxygen.”
“We are very pleased to see Oxygen lead the way by investing in their staff to complete this qualification,” says Jenny Patrickson, managing director of Active IQ. “We worked very closely with Right Directions to ensure the highest safety standards are being met, Trampolining continues to rise in popularity and operators who can demonstrate their staff are fully trained and accredited will stand out to customers. The aim is that other operators follow Oxygen’s example to ensure health and safety standards are met and retained through this qualification and on-going CPD support.”
Gill Twell head of group development and Quest operations for Right Directions said: “With the popularity in trampolining still on the rise, there is a clear need to ensure we set high standards of health & safety and customer service to protect the public and invest in training for trampoline court monitors so that they can fulfil their role with confidence and skill. This will also assist the trampolining park industry to raise their profile and give customers additional confidence that staff who are supervising the parks hold a national recognised qualification.”