CAT & Genny Training – Cable Avoidance Tool and Signal Generator (title truncated in nav: "CAT & Genny Training – Cable Avoidance Tool and Signal Gener...")

Need CAT & Genny Training for yourself or your team?

Learn practical cable avoidance, underground service detection and equipment limitations, alongside safe excavation principles aligned with HSE HSG47.

Novice and refresher courses help operators use detection equipment confidently and understand its role in a safe system of work.

Training for Your Team: On suitable customer sites throughout the UK.

Booking for Yourself or Your Team?: At our Tewkesbury centre in Gloucestershire.

Call 01684 297167.

Enquire About CAT & Genny Training.

Need CAT & Genny training for yourself or a workforce that digs, excavates or works around underground services?

Vally Plant Training provides practical NPORS CAT & Genny training, cable avoidance training, underground services detection training and Underground Services Location Training for construction, utilities, groundworks, highways, civil engineering and other industries where people need to locate buried services before breaking ground.

This one-day course teaches candidates how to use a Cable Avoidance Tool (CAT scanner) and Signal Generator (Genny) correctly, carry out systematic underground service searches, understand the different locating modes, interpret indications and recognise the limitations of cable detection equipment.

Just as importantly, we put the equipment into context.

A CAT scan is not a substitute for planning the excavation.

Candidates develop an understanding of the principles contained within HSE HSG47 - Avoiding Danger from Underground Services, including the use of utility information, locating buried services and safe excavation practices.

HSG47 identifies these as the three basic elements of a safe system of work.

Novice and refresher training is available.

Courses are normally one day with a maximum of six candidates.

Centre-based NPORS CAT & Genny training starts from £280 + VAT per person.

Train at our dedicated Tewkesbury training centre in Gloucestershire or arrange on-site CAT & Genny training anywhere in the UK for your workforce.

If your job involves digging, trenching, excavation, drilling, breaking ground or planning work near buried services, CAT & Genny training may be relevant to your role.

The course is suitable for:

CAT & Genny competence is separate from plant operator competence.

An experienced excavator driver does not automatically know how to carry out a proper cable avoidance survey.

Vally Plant Training is a family-run, NPORS Accredited Training Provider established in 2014.

We provide training directly rather than acting as a training broker.

CAT & Genny training is available for individual candidates at our Tewkesbury centre and for companies requiring on-site cable avoidance training for employees anywhere in the UK.

You can choose:

Our instructors work within the plant and construction training industry, allowing the course to connect underground service detection with the situations candidates actually encounter around excavators, trenches, groundworks and construction sites.

Never used a cable locator before, or only used one occasionally without formal instruction?

Choose the novice CAT & Genny course.

The novice route teaches candidates how the equipment works before developing practical skills in searching, locating and tracing underground services.

The course is normally one day with a maximum of six candidates.

Already completed recognised CAT & Genny or cable avoidance training and need to renew or update your certification?

Our CAT & Genny refresher training is designed for previously trained candidates whose existing card or certificate has expired, is approaching renewal, or who need to refresh their knowledge and practical skills.

The refresher route may also be suitable if you have previously held a recognised accredited CAT & Genny or cable avoidance certificate from another awarding body.

Refresher training revisits correct Cable Avoidance Tool and Signal Generator use, underground service detection, equipment limitations, HSG47 principles and safe working practices before assessment.

If you're unsure whether your previous certification qualifies you for refresher training, contact Vally Plant Training before booking and we'll check the certification you already hold.

Training combines theory with hands-on use of underground service locating equipment.

Depending on the candidate and equipment being used, subjects can include operator responsibilities, HSG47 principles, underground service hazards, service plans, equipment checks, CAT operating modes, Signal Generator use, passive and active locating, systematic scanning, tracing services, marking detected routes, interpreting signals, equipment limitations, safe excavation principles and emergency actions following a service strike.

The aim is not simply to teach someone how to obtain a reading.

Candidates need to understand what the indication means, what it does not prove and what further precautions may still be required before excavation begins.

Anyone involved in excavation should understand that CAT & Genny use is only one part of a safe system of work.

The Health and Safety Executive's HSG47 - Avoiding Danger from Underground Services is aimed at people involved in commissioning, planning, managing and carrying out work on or near underground services.

HSG47 describes three basic elements: 1.

Plan the work - Obtain available information, consider which services could be present and assess the risks before anyone starts digging.

2.

Locate and identify buried services - Use plans, suitable locating equipment and other appropriate methods to establish where underground services are likely to be.

3.

Excavate safely - Once services have been identified, use a safe method of excavation appropriate to the circumstances.

This is why CAT & Genny training should never create a false sense of security.

A CAT scanner is an important tool.

It is not an underground X-ray.

Underground services can include: electricity cables • gas mains • water mains • sewers • telecommunications • fibre optic cables • street lighting supplies • private site services Striking one can have consequences far beyond the cost of repairing it.

Depending on the service, the consequences can include electric shock, electrical arcing, fire, explosion, gas release, flooding, loss of communications, serious injury or fatality.

There can also be major commercial consequences:

Cable avoidance equipment can provide different locating modes.

Depending on the model, these can include Power, Radio and Generator/Genny modes, together with additional functionality on some equipment.

Different modes are intended to detect different signals.

That matters because not every underground service will present the same detectable signal.

A worker who switches a locator on, walks across an excavation once and sees no indication has not necessarily proved that the area is free from underground services.

A proper survey needs to be systematic and appropriate to the equipment, site and work being planned.

The Genny - Signal Generator - works with compatible locating equipment to introduce a signal onto suitable services, allowing the locator operator to trace that signal.

This active locating method can provide valuable information that passive scanning alone may not reveal.

Candidates therefore need to understand the CAT and Genny as a system rather than treating the Signal Generator as an accessory that never needs to leave the van.

No locating device should be treated as a guarantee that every buried cable, pipe or service has been found.

The effectiveness of detection can be influenced by the service material, available signal, depth, nearby services, equipment, operator technique and site conditions.

The Vally Plant Training underground-services guide also stresses that drawings should be treated as a guide rather than a guarantee, and that locating equipment does not replace safe digging practices.

That is why a safe excavation process uses several layers of information and control.

Think of underground service avoidance as a process rather than a single CAT scan.

Service information helps establish what is expected to be present.

CAT & Genny surveying helps locate and trace detectable services.

Marking and identification communicate the findings to people carrying out the work.

Safe excavation methods are then used to expose or work around services.

Where required by the workplace, this may also form part of a permit-to-dig system, risk assessment and method statement.

Service drawings are extremely useful, but they should not be treated as proof of the exact position of every underground service.

Services may have been:

This is why service plans and physical locating techniques complement each other.

The work area still needs to be assessed on site.

When a service is detected, its believed route should be communicated clearly to the people carrying out the work.

That may involve appropriate surface markings and site briefings.

But a line painted on the ground does not magically turn the ground either side of it into a safe mechanical digging zone.

Workers still need to understand uncertainty, service depth and the excavation controls being used.

One of the most useful habits when working near underground services is to keep checking.

Ground conditions and available information change as excavation progresses.

Our underground-services guidance recommends scanning the work area, marking detected services and re-scanning as excavation progresses rather than assuming one scan is enough.

This is particularly important where excavation begins to expose information that was not apparent at ground level.

Finding the service does not finish the job.

The excavation still needs to be carried out safely.

Our current underground-services guidance explains the recognised approach around known or suspected services, including careful exposure and avoiding inappropriate mechanical excavation close to identified services.

Excavators are capable of damaging buried services very quickly.

An operator therefore needs clear information about known and suspected services, the permitted excavation area and the safe system of work before digging begins.

Do not simply carry on because the excavation needs to start.

Cable locating equipment is being relied upon as part of a safety-critical process.

Equipment should be checked in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, and anything that could affect reliable operation should be dealt with before the equipment is relied upon.

The same principle applies throughout plant operations: identify defects, report them and don't knowingly use equipment where the defect could compromise safety.

We're conveniently located close to Junction 9 of the M5, making the centre accessible from Gloucester, Cheltenham, Worcester, Evesham, Stroud, Bristol, Birmingham and the wider Midlands and South West.

Ashchurch for Tewkesbury railway station is approximately five minutes' walk away.

The centre option is particularly useful for individuals, self-employed workers and companies that don't have suitable CAT & Genny equipment or training facilities at their own workplace.

Need several employees trained?

We can bring the course to you.

Vally Plant Training provides on-site CAT & Genny training throughout the UK, subject to suitable equipment, facilities and arrangements.

On-site delivery works particularly well for: Groundworks contractors • utility companies • civil engineering contractors • construction businesses • highway teams • drainage contractors • telecommunications companies • housebuilders • local authorities • industrial sites

For customer-site CAT & Genny training, suitable arrangements need to be available for both theory and practical training.

Depending on the course, requirements can include:

Current centre-based prices are: NPORS Novice & Refresher Course - From £280 + VAT per person NPORS Card & Registration - £45 + VAT per person These prices apply to training and testing carried out at our Tewkesbury training centre.

On-site CAT & Genny training is quoted separately because travel, location, candidate numbers and training arrangements vary.

Discounts may be available for multiple bookings.

The course combines theory and practical assessment.

Candidates need to demonstrate that they can use the locating equipment appropriately and understand the safety principles and limitations associated with underground service detection.

Successful candidates following the applicable NPORS route receive the relevant NPORS certification.

In-house CAT & Genny certification may also be available where appropriate.

In-house certification is not the same as an NPORS Operator Card, and acceptance depends on the employer, client, site and insurer.

Eligible CITB-registered employers may be able to claim funding towards qualifying training, subject to the current scheme rules.

Vally Plant Training is a CITB Training Provider Network Member.

Tell us your business is CITB registered when requesting your quotation so we can provide the appropriate course information.

CAT & GENNY • CABLE AVOIDANCE TRAINING Train Before You Break Ground Whether you're booking for yourself or arranging CAT & Genny training for a complete workforce, we'll help you choose the right novice or refresher route.

Train at our Tewkesbury centre or arrange on-site cable avoidance training anywhere in the UK.

Request CAT & Genny Training