CTA Centre was the first fully CITB accredited permanent training and testing site in the South West.

It is equipped to handle all the classifications of plant for which Construction Skills offer CPCS cards. The centre comprises a site which replicated all construction site conditions and was opened in 1991. 40 acres of dedicated training area plus 7 acres of woodland (for chainsaw training) also means that it is possible to carry out more than one type of training at any one time.

Only modern plant is used at the centre, that not available from the company’s own fleet is obtained from major sources in the South West.

The Centre was the brainchild of Keith Curtis, who has been in the plant business since 1979, having been employed as an operator prior to commencing business in his own right as a one man operator of a wheeled digger. Gradually expanding to a position of having 20+ machines operating all over the country.

It was his experience and foresight that made him realise that bearing in mind the need for any trainee working in ultra safe conditions, it is not always possible to qualify a person as a machine operator in the often limited confines of a town construction site and this led him to set aside the land at West Park purely as a training ground for operators.

The centre now carries its own plant machinery including 360 excavators, forward tipping dumpers, telehandler and forklift trucks on which the operator can train.