Rope Access Darwinism - Survival of the Fittest

Rope Access is about the same as most other jobs out there, a valuable workforce [any workforce, not just Rope Access] needs to constantly improve itself. Those who have less skills than the rest will always find themselves at the bottom of the heap, it's a sort of natural selection, Darwinism for the working classes!

It would make sense for anyone considering a career in Rope Access to understand that their career is not up and running with just one qualification/skill. The more you have the better, what the clever ones are doing though, is to find out where to get funding for the expensive courses - not just NDT but also, microwave installation, comms, etc - thus saving their own hard earned cash for other purposes.

Rope Access is avaiable in many different countries all over the world, not just the North Sea - we stopped counting after 30 odd countries - There is still plenty of scope for others to make perfectly good careers out of Rope Access, all it needs is a little application of new/existing skills.

Don't forget that competition is good, competition tells you that these skills are in demand, competition gives the sensible people a target to beat, if that target means getting another ticket then so be it [in the mid 90's after a Lizard EMA crack detection course at the Force Institute in Denamrk, operators found they could pick up massive salaries].

Running any career is like running a business, you need to keep investing in it in order to stay at the front of the pack. If you spend 1200 on a course, you'd expect to get a decent return on your investment, if you aren't going to get a decent return on it, don't fork out the cash in the first place [or even better, find someone else who will pay for it].

Rope Access in the UK/European offshore sectors has always been quiet between Nov Feb every year, most Rope Access techs expected not to be busy in the UK at that time of year - anyway, who would want to be out there in the North Sea during winter?

It's been common in latter years for RA techs to travel further afield in the winter months to warmer climes, work in the Far East is flourishing, Brasil, Gulf of Mexico, Australia are all buzzing all year round, the good old US of A are getting their act together and forming some huge Rope Access companies [some of them are already calling themselves the largest on the planet].

The higher qualified RA people tend to do better in the winter months because they have a bigger skillset that can be utilised more by their employing companies, it stands to reason therefore that those lesser qualified will have more time out of work.

We get dozens of emails every week along the lines of "just got mi(sic) level 1, can u let me know where i can get a highly paid permanent job?" - People need to be educated to the fact that in order to get a decent job they will need to apply themselves a little, that's why we spent so much time writing software for the Premium Account, Rope Access Career Pack [we haven't heard of any Career Pack user who has been out of work for long] and every other statistcal tool on our website.

From my point of view - and I feel as though I'm qualified to comment on it, in light of the fact that we regularly deal, with most of the planets Rope Access companies - I can see a rosy future ahead for Rope Access, technicians will always be looking about for work, they will always be on hire and fire contracts, the sensible ones will always realise they have to keep one step ahead of the game - I've been in this business a long time, the advice I would give would be: 'Darwinism rules, don't be caught out'

Article written and supplied by:

Tom Rigg of R.A.L
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Rigg Access Ltd has helped many people gain employment in
the Rope Access industry. To find out how RAL can benefit you,
visit: www.rigg-access.com
the worlds BUSIEST Rope Access website
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