WJA Member Spotlight – RTS
Company name: RTS (Reeves Training Solutions Ltd)
Company representative: Mike Reeves
Job title: Managing Director
What services do you deliver to the water jetting industry?
We provide the WJA’s Safety Awareness, Drain & Sewer Jetting and Pressure Washer training courses to new businesses looking to start careers in our sector and to companies well established. Who are looking to renew their qualifications or upskill their drainage operatives. We are also accredited First aid training providers, so we also offer First Aid training courses to WJA Trainers and clients.
What are the three most important elements of service delivery for your customers and why?
1) Ensuring the element of safety and safe working practices is effectively conveyed to each student.
2) Each student learns in a relaxed, fun, and interactive way.
3) Each student leaves being engaged, encouraged, and enabled to work safely and effectively and make a difference in their role and go home safe at the end of every day.
What have been the business highlights for RTS over the last 12 months?
Helping more than 130 individuals to continue with or start new careers, having the knowledge to stay safe and work safe. Also, we reached the finals in 6 categories in the UK Business Awards and won in 3 of them. Also, continuing to growing our reputation in our sector.
Tell us something that you think anyone outside the industry will be impressed about your products and/or services.
We are regularly asked to offer in-depth courses in a variety of disciplines for various awarding bodies including:
- BPEC-accredited Water Regulations;
- Above Ground Sanitation & Rainwater Systems;
- Groundworkers Service Pipe & Meter Housing Installers;
- Part L (Energy Efficiency) Unvented G3 DHWSS.
We are also accredited to deliver EUSR National Water Hygiene (Blue card) courses and deliver a range of health and safety courses accredited through the FAA and regulated by Ofqual. We are also approved under the Bravo and DPS scheme to teach in prisons to help inmates who wish to better themselves prior to release.
What’s the biggest change in technology or process you have witnessed in your service sector in recent years?
The improvement in the types and design of jetting nozzles and equipment has been impressive. In terms of training, the continued advances in artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality, and their possibilities for improving learning, are going to play a huge role in the coming years. I believe this will especially be the case in the plumbing and heating, drainage and health and safety sectors.
What do you think will be the biggest changes or challenges over the next 10 years?
Personally and professionally, I feel keeping up to date with the changes in technology in the industry may be challenging but we will endeavor to embrace the changes and move with the times.
What are you most proud of about the way your team supports your customers?
Our team provides exceptional customer service from the initial enquiry through to delivery of the training course and after-sales follow-up emails and calls to ensure customer satisfaction.
How long has RTS been a member of the WJA?
Since 2019, but I used to be an accredited trainer and assessor in a variety of subjects with another company for a number of years.
Why did the company decide to join?
To promote safe use of jetting equipment through an organisation recognised by the HSE, and to deliver training courses that clients have confidence in regarding their validity.
What do you think are the WJA’s biggest achievements?
The continued emphasis on safety and the development of better codes of practice and safe systems of work, especially the new pressure washer code of practice, are central to the WJA’s purpose and success.
The pressure washing sector of our industry is often under-represented and the need for appropriate training is not promoted enough or even recognised by many companies because of lack of awareness of the risks associated with lower pressure units.
Most hand car washing and valeting businesses don’t encourage their staff to wear correct PPE, neither are the risks communicated effectively. Even on a domestic front, anyone can buy a pressure washer in B&Q like a Karcher at 150bar/2000psi to wash their car or decking/patio.
Some people may even ask younger members of the family to wash the car to earn pocket money, not realising the possible dangers from the jet of water or contaminants in the aerosol spray as a by product of cleaning.
Not to mention the risk of hot water or chemical detergents being either inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
As a training provider, what are you most pleased about in terms of the impact of WJA training on your clients?
Our clients have a huge amount of confidence in the reputation of the WJA and the benefits of being affiliated with it. They know they are receiving City & Guilds accredited training from a certified training provider, with training material and, indeed, the trainer vetted and checked to ensure they receive accurate and up-to-date information.
What do you think is one of the WJA’s most important initiatives over the last 12 months?
All the work WJA committees have done to develop the pressure washer code of practice and publish it, and bring the drain and sewer code of practice right up to date, will have a major impact on safe systems of work and safety procedures. Also, in the last couple of years, providing
the WJA water jetting first aid algorithm and offering first aid training to WJA trainers reinforces the WJA’s commitment to safety.
If RTS was an animal, what kind would it be?
If RTS was an animal, it would probably be a horse. Horses are known for their strength and resilience. They are often used to symbolise stamina, wisdom, freedom, intellect, and loyalty. RTS will take that!