The TRA Members’ Day 2026: Part 3 – Competence and Training

We thoroughly enjoyed welcoming over 100 TRA members to the Manor House in Meriden this year. The final part – Part 3 – of our coverage of the TRA Annual Members’ Day 2026 looks at ‘Competence and Training‘.  

The Building Safety Act: proving design competence

Nick Boulton, the TRA’s CEO, explained that over the last 6 months TRA members have been reporting that customers are asking them to prove the competency of their designers – how they can evidence design competence. This is largely a consequence of the Building Safety Act 2022. The BSA insists that clients have suitable arrangements in place to ensure planning, managing and competence of the people they employ; and that a principal designer and principal contractor are defined.

The phrase “ensure that all design work complies with building regulations” is key, Nick noted. But it is for the principal designer to show that the overall design meets the building regulations. . Individual truss and metal web component designers can help achieve this but cannot be held liable when their designs are for just one element within the overall structure. The TRA will be working with members to produce a competence matrix and publish guidance on this important matter.

Ed Kirk, Operations, Innovation and Sustainability Director at Crendon Timber Engineering, explained what steps Crendon are taking to address BSA requirements. In many ways, Ed said, it echoes steps they took when CDM was first released. They have put together an extensive document to explain the post-BSA climate to their designers. All of their designers receive training in-house, but also from the TRA and their software provider MiTek. This overall training package is used to demonstrate the necessary level of competency within the business.

Crendon also have a mentor trainee system to buddy people together in the business; featuring a training matrix for designers, which helpfully shares all the names at each branch and what they are competent in.

Sponsor presentation: BPC Building Products

Scott McAndrew, Technical Director of BPC Building Products, brought us up to speed on recent developments at BPC. As part of their continual pursuit of innovation, they have invested in a new dedicated 4,000 sq ft innovation centre, complete with a universal test rig and a conditioning chamber.

All BPC products are tested to EAD (European Assessment Document) standards and to set procedures. They have also invested in testing with ZwickRoell and can now carry out compression tests to 250kN capacity. In addition to Scott’s informative presentation, it is worth noting that the competition for BPC’s “guess the number of nails in the jar” challenge was fierce. The answer was finally revealed at the evening’s Roofscape Awards: a fiendish 666!

The TRA Designer Development Programme

The presentation reminded everyone the DDP programme is being developed by members to provide regulated, standardised training that if adopted across the sector will help ensure we can plug the skills gap going forward. Nick suggested the DDP is also an effective way to record and evidence the competence of individual designers. Evidence books are now available for Levels 1 to 3 for both trusses and metal web giving TRA members the opportunity to onboard new designers in either or both fields.

Much of the framework for Levels 4 and above has already been planned out, providing useful criteria to help with assessing the competence of more experienced designers. Although the evidence books for these levels are still very much a work in progress However, Nick explained that so far, uptake of the DDP has been low. Perhaps not surprising given the levels of housebuilding we have seen over the last three years.
Having been asked for feedback, delegates in the room were very much in favour of continuation for the DDP, suggesting the evidence books were a very worthwhile aid in training new designers.

The Member’s Day sponsors – Simpson Strong-Tie, BPC, Hundegger, Cullen and James Hardie – were on-hand throughout the day to help attendees better understand their products and services. Many thanks to all our sponsors, without whom the day could not have been the success that it was.

We hope you enjoyed this year’s Member’s Day and found it as worthwhile as we did.

Click here to read Part 1 of this year’s write-up to learn about ‘Business Survival’; alongside more of our sponsor presentations.

Thanks to all our Members’ Day sponsors: Simpson Strong-Tie, BPC, Hundegger, Cullen and James Hardie. They were on hand throughout the day to help attendees better understand their products and services. Without our sponsors, the day could not have been the success that it was.