Anyone got any opinions on the subject of refresher training on general H&S topics such as Risk Assessment, online DSE, slips/trips/falls, manual handling and environmental awareness-type training courses? ie does refresher need to be done, if so, how often? I only ask as some staff are saying we are expecting too much of them re refreshers! How do you manage this in your company?

You actually 'train' people on avoiding tripping or slipping? By "Risk Assessment" are you talking about the competent persons conducting the Assessment? Are you talking 'Training' or awareness briefings/ toolbox talk type of thing?

Oops. Sorry should have said NOT electrical fires.

Refresher training shouldn't be just a repeat of the original training. It should be a chance to practise and be tested on the skills or knowledge that were supposed to be learned the first time. So an exercise or a quiz and discussion format.

My company recently required us to sit through a new training programme. Topics included one which explained how to behave in a working environment. For example: How not to touch yourself inappropriately when speaking to a colleague. How not to touch a colleague inappropriately. How to announce ones self when entering a colleagues work area. Once complete I must say I learnt nothing other than how paranoid some employers can be!

Andy, I kid you not! The training module was about half hour's worth with video clips in support. I wonder how many employees did actually learn anything useful. What a 'carry on'

I can hear Sid James laughing in the background.

Refresher training should be a continuous process because it is impossible for any person to retain all the knowledge, skill and understanding they need to deal with every situation. Unfortunately implementing an effective refresher training program is very difficult. In fact I would go as far as saying any company or individual that can develop an effective refresher training system would become very wealthy because the benefits to business would be enormous. As people have already said, refresher training should not be a re-run of the original training given. It should be targeted where it is needed. It should, for example: * Give people the opportunity to use a skill that they do not get to use very often * Remind about information that is easily forgotten, but may be required at short notice so that there would not be time to go and find it when required * Make people re-evaluate their understanding of risks where complacency is a possibility To identify requirements it is necessary to have a good definition of what competence is required and how much experience people have in using it. This will vary from person to person, and is likely to change over time. The frequency of refresher training would then depend on how quickly competence could degrade, which can be affected by many factors. As I said, this is not easy but some effort in planning and implementing correctly will, in my opinion, have great safety and business benefits,

Hiya, I've posted on this topic before and I will again, due to the strength of feelings I have about it.... On the majority of safety subjects there is no legal requirement for refresher training and research indicates that the majority of refresher training is a total waste of time. Whoops I've said it again! The main legal requirement in most regulations is to ensure competence not to ensure refresher training. A far more effective method of ensuring competence is via interview, monitoring, inspection, observations etc. and keeping a formal record of what employees work practices actually are. If there are employees which competencies fall beneath the required standard then by all means give them refresher training but don't deliver this to every employee whether or not they require it! A good example is FLT drivers. If you have 400 FLT driers on site, how do you manage to give them refresher training every 2, 3, 4 or 5 years? A better approach is to monitor drivers through a formal programme involving 'assessments' or 'observations', monitoring unsafe acts, accidents etc. and then deciding who requires refresher training or even retaking of their license. Keeping a record of such assessments and monitoring will be far more benefical in "ensuring competency" and defending a claim rather than sitting someone on the same course every 3 years. Rant over, Enjoy your day! Ian