What exactly do health and safety training courses teach?

Most governments have made it mandatory for organisations to provide formal health and safety training to their employees and for a good reason. The training not only implements safe practices in workplaces but also trains the staff to respond promptly and efficiently in case of a work-related mishap.

The lessons taught naturally vary from course to course. For example, a basic IOSH working safely training course gives sessions on fundamental workplace safety practices and how to follow them. On the other hand, specialised training courses such as asbestos awareness training course, fire safety training course, and electrical safety awareness course, to name a few, offer valuable teachings for more specific industries or jobs. The asbestos awareness, for example, deals with working safely around asbestos and fire safety course deals with responding to fire alarms at the right time, using suitable methods to put out the fire and instituting measures to prevent fire in the first place.

Besides risk assessment training and implementation of risk-free work practices, formal health and safety courses also offer training in recognising and providing primary care for sudden illnesses and injuries so as to maintain the person stable till able medical assistance shows up. This may include performing CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) on adults, emergency evacuation, hazard communication, management of hazardous waste, lab safety, electrical safety, tool safety, biosafety, etc.

If you are looking for a good health and safety training course for your hired hands, you can easily find one online. The relevance of these courses would be contingent on your own requirement as well as what you already know, of course. For example, many centres offer courses such as extremism and radicalism awareness, abrasive wheel awareness, electrical safety, confined space awareness, etc. online. These may include learning materials which do not necessarily require practical training (unlike classes such as first aid, fire warden, and handling safely). Some of these courses may require prior training.

It is, of course, better to take Health and safety training offline especially in subjects such as first aid, fire safety, etc. since these pertain to practical work. Not to mention, if you cannot allow yourself to compromise on your work productivity by sending off your workers to a formal training, you are better off choosing an online IOSH course to guide them in working safely in and around the workplace.

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