PLASA National Rigging Certificate Attracts More Supporters

Over the last few months several high-profile UK venues have adopted the National Rigging Certificate (NRC) in the UK as it becomes the clearest way of benchmarking the skills and experience of riggers in the entertainment industry. The importance of this for venues and producers is being recognized and now ACC Liverpool, the NIA, LG Arena, Phones 4U Arena Manchester, Manchester Central, and NEC have become full endorsing venues, while ExCel London has committed to supporting the NRC and is working toward full endorsement.

"The endorsement by venues of qualifications such as this will help to further improve competency and safety standards across the industry. The NRC is another step towards meeting the rigging industry's aspirations of consistently high levels of competence and safety," states Nicky Norman, senior production and technical manager, ACC Liverpool, home to BT Convention Centre and Echo Arena.

"I believe that the NRC is key to developing formal recognition of entertainment rigging as a discipline in its own right within our industry in the UK. We have our own internal assessments for rigging staff however external verification is extremely important to us, and the NRC does just that," adds Paul Rowlands, rigging development manager NIA and LG Arena.

"All riggers and freelancers within the NEC rigging department have now achieved the National Rigging Certification (NRC), and we're very proud of that," enthuses Billy Sondh, NEC venue technical operations manager.

First launched in the UK in 2007, the National Rigging Certificate (NRC) is a qualification designed to give riggers recognition for their skills, knowledge, and expertise, and a means of demonstrating that they've attained a professional standard within their chosen rigging discipline.