Some people spend their entire working lives in one industry. Others, like Julie Burgess-Collins, take a more varied route…
When Julie joined HSS Training in January 2026, she brought her experience from haulage, construction and therapeutic parenting to her role as a Training Instructor – with an earlier career as a chef adding another unexpected chapter to her professional journey!
Today, Julie’s role is focussed on work at height, delivering accredited Ladder Association and PASMA training courses to delegates to give them the knowledge and skills to work safely at height when using ladders and mobile access towers (and she’s also working towards gaining her IPAF instructor qualification for powered access). Upskilling to become a Ladder Association Instructor was about more than simply adding another qualification to her skill set.
It was driven by a genuine desire to share knowledge, promote safe working practices and help prevent accidents.
“I wanted to share my existing health and safety knowledge and extend this to promote best practice when using ladders and stepladders,” Julie explains. “My motivation is to help prevent accidents and, if possible, stop even one person from experiencing a life-changing incident while working at height.”
That passion for sharing knowledge has been a consistent theme throughout Julie’s career. Although she had previously been told she possessed a natural ability to teach, she admits she didn’t always believe it herself. Her instructor training, however, helped build both her confidence and her appreciation of what makes an effective instructor.
Online Training to Learn the Theory: A Highlight for Julie
The online training days with Ladder Association Lead Instructor & Auditor, Geoff Carr, were one highlight of the process. Geoff’s positive and approachable teaching style made a lasting impression, and the sessions demonstrated the depth of knowledge and understanding required to become an effective Ladder Association Instructor, “There was a lot to learn that’s for sure,” said Julie.
Geoff commented, “Prior to completing the online training with me, Julie had limited ladder-specific knowledge and was a relatively new training instructor at her company. Over the course of the 3 days however, I was extremely impressed with her enthusiasm and engagement and could clearly see her confidence growing as she soaked up all the information around health and safety regulations, ladder standards, equipment and safe use.
“Her sense of humour stood out too, which is a great asset to have as an instructor to keep your delegates engaged. She immersed herself in all the exercises with a determination to complete and pass the course, which she did with flying colours.
“It was my pleasure to train Julie, and I look forward to watching her grow as a Ladder Instructor in the future.”
Learning from the Best: The Instructor Mentoring Stage
One of the most valuable parts of the training was the opportunity to shadow experienced Ladder Association instructors, to learn from their approach and share experiences, anecdotes and teaching styles.
All of Julie’s knowledge and experience was further enhanced when it came to the mentoring sessions. These in-person sessions span several courses when the novice instructor is assigned a Lead Instructor, who acts as their mentor to observe and support them when delivering their first ‘real’ courses. For Julie, that mentor was colleague, Debbie Forbes – a Ladder Association Instructor since 2016 (also trained by Geoff!), Lead Instructor since 2023 (who has since mentored around a dozen new instructors) and who also sits on the Ladder Association Training Committee. The two are pictured below (Debbie standing, and Julie on the right).
“Debbie was a fantastic mentor. She has endless work at height knowledge and a calm and relaxed approach which really helped to make the process enjoyable and rewarding.
“Even now, as fully-fledged Ladder Association Instructor, I’m still learning – and I don’t think that will ever stop. Every course brings the opportunity to meet different people from different walks of life who share their own ladder or work at height stories, and they allow me to impart my growing safety knowledge to help delegates work safely at height”.
A Final Word of Advice from Julie for Budding Instructors…
For anyone considering becoming an instructor, Julie’s advice is simple: go for it! “It’s a great environment with fantastic people,” she says.
And for newly qualified instructors? The advice is equally straightforward: know your subject, be confident in what you are teaching and, most importantly, enjoy the role.
With a passion for sharing knowledge and a clear commitment to helping people work safely at height, Julie is already making a positive contribution to the HSS Training team, one course at a time.
Julie Burgess-Collins is employed by HSS Training, who are part of a network of training centres that offer Ladder Association training in the UK and beyond.
For more information on accredited Ladder Association training, visit our Training webpage >
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