When talking to a client the other day I was asked why training was so important and how had other businesses managed to train staff during the pandemic.
As an H&S consultant who delivers a range of safety training courses I understand the importance of interactive training and learning and how a booklet or webpage of information is rarely an effective alternative, but I also understand how this is not second nature to everyone.
Training is a fundamental requirement under The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and is seen as a necessity to help protect the health and safety of your employees whilst at work.
Why provide health and safety training?
- To ensure that people who work for you know how to work safely and without risks to health;
- To develop a positive health and safety culture, where safe and healthy working becomes second nature to everyone;
- To meet your legal duty to protect the health and safety of your employees.
Everyone within the business needs health and safety training whether you’re a Director, Manager, Supervisor or Employee, or even self-employed (if that person is working under your control or direction, they will also need the training to work safely).
Training now comes in many forms, from in-house training to classroom-based training and now the ever-increasing computer-based or interactive learning is known as e-learning.
You need to decide the following when thinking about your training needs with the ultimate aim of reducing risk and complying with your legislative responsibilities:
- Decide what training your organisation needs,
- Decide your training priorities,
- Choose your training methods and resources,
You then need to arrange to deliver the training and check that the training has worked.
E-learning or Classroom – which is better?
The effectiveness of classroom and e-learning often becomes an issue of debate. Can we say definitely which is more effective?
While one (classroom) offers real-time interaction with an instructor, the other (e-learning) allows learners to learn at their own pace in a flexible manner. In such a case, how can you decide which method you need to adopt for effectively and efficiently imparting knowledge and skills to learners?
You cannot deny the benefits of classroom training, where a trainer allows learners to personally interact with others in a live environment and there is generally someone in a classroom to motivate and assess the performance of learners and adapt as required, whereas with e-learning the learners are required to be self-driven and a bit self-disciplined to benefit fully.
However, E-learning has evolved and improved over the years to grab the interest of the learners and hold their attention (sometimes using presenters), with an aim to increase user engagement and to simulate classroom training as much as possible. A big benefit of e-learning is it allows candidates to repeat the course as required to make sure that they understood everything that was presented, whilst demonstrating understanding with ‘Proof of learning’ through a questionnaire at the end of each course.
With the world and attitudes of work changing and businesses allowing more flexible or in some cases permanent home working it is going to be harder and more costly to continue with classroom-based training, losing travel time and costs on top of the training. Although the benefits of getting everyone together and interacting with each other are still very much there.
Ultimately it is for you to decide what training is best for you. Some training has to remain face to face, such as First Aid training to allow the candidate to demonstrate effective CPR, but even this can be reinforced by online training for your annual refresher training.
Assist Health & Safety Services can now offer all forms of training from classroom-based training to an extensive library of e-learning courses. Please take a look at the courses available on my website and if you would like more information then please contact me on 07809 214512.
Assist Health & Safety Services
Email: ghodge@assist-hs.co.uk
