Hey Rope techs! There are some changes happening with IRATA that will affect the assessment days at PacRopes.

One of IRATA's goals is to gain their ISO 17024 certification. This accreditation will give IRATA more credibility in regards to it's commitment to safety. Being in the industry, we already understand and operate within the safety regulations IRATA upholds. However, there are still many industries that are hesitant or don't trust the idea of working on ropes. Gaining an ISO accreditation will help us achieve the reputation of being a safe option for work at height. The more industries that adopt IRATA and rope access, the more work there will be for all of us right??

The process of achieving this certification means there will be many changes coming to the way we conduct the IRATA assessments. As you all know, IRATA assessments are orchestrated by a third party, IRATA Assessor. These changes will mainly affect their current procedure and the environments in which they conduct their assessments.

One change that will come into effect June 1st, 2018 is that an IRATA Assessor will no longer be able to conduct a SPRAT evaluation at the same time. For those of you who have had one person do your IRATA assessment and SPRAT evaluation at the same time, you can now expect to be doing two separate assessments instead. However, we understand change is hard and inconvenient. So, in order for us to implement these changes at PacRopes as seamlessly as possible; and without much impact to your rope access training, please let us know what you think!

You can help us decide how to implement these changes. Click below to take a poll and vote on what you think we should do! Should we run separate IRATA and SPRAT courses or still combine them but have two separate assessment days? Do you think you'll just stick to IRATA or SPRAT and not keep both? Or, do you think you'll want to do two assessments on the same day? Let us know!!