Hello All,

I am currently looking into new training providers who do awareness course, we are moving away from a previous provider (Ihasco) and am looking for alternative providers.

Is there any additional providers that do open licenses where I can issue out multiple training courses to employees and monitor progression.

Please not Citation, Atlas or Ihasco any other recommendations would be appreciated.

Some of the awareness courses we look to do online are as follows:

- Working at Height awareness

- Stepladder awareness

- Asbestos Awareness

- Abrasive Wheel Awareness

- Fire safety awareness

- Risk assessment awareness

- Manual Handling Awareness

- HAVS awareness

- DSE Awareness

 - H&S in Construction awareness

- CDM Awareness

Edited by user 29 October 2024 16:00:26(UTC)  | Reason: Addition

Might get a tailored response if you were clear on what "awareness" courses you are seeking.

Originally Posted by: ShaunBaker91

There you go, I was wanting to avoid adding a big list but hey ho canny appease them all 

Given how big your list is probably a very fair question given the spread of subjects you are wanting to cover.

Blunderbuss & Barn Door springs to mind.

Hi Shaun

Perhaps you should also think about which of these topics might be suited to online training and which might be better done by other methods.

AND what duration each should take?

So, you could have a relatively short online "course" on use of stepladders, but do you really think that "CDM Awareness" could be covered in an hour or less?

What is your objective - to tick some boxes or to actually be confident that the training meets your organisation's needs.

Plenty offering online training in almost anything these days. But what happens when one of your delegates wants to ask a question and the trainer either doesn't answer (perhaps because the training platform isn't set up for a dialogue) or the trainer either hasn't a clue or tries to make it up as they go along?

I made this mistake iin the early days of CDM, though NOT online training. We wanted a trainer to deliver a 3 day course to set up some relatively senior staff to spearhead the delivery of our CDM, then "Planning Supervisor" services. So, I went out to market.

Made it quite clear that we would make the choice on the basis of quality over price and also that I wanted at least 60% of the programme to be case study work. Found a well know consultancy specialising in Construction and a trainer ex HSE. Seemed good as did the proposed programme.

But the delegate feedback to me was far too consistent for my liking. "Peter, every time we asked them a question, they sais they hadn't come across 'that scenario' before". All the scenarios mentioned were entirely predictable questions, most of which I had already dealt with on projects. So do you need a trainer with the knowledge and experience to field your delegates' questions competently?

Finally, a caveat. Whoever you think of choosing, do your due diligence. Would you think that a sole trader is likely to be a sustainable provider going forward, or a high risk choice?

Almost anyone could set up a training business and many are doing so from an office at home. Will they (a) be competent to meet your needs and (b) still be in business in 5 years time?

Hi Shaun

Still unconvinced.

Suppose you put someone through face to face Risk Assessment training that lasts half a day or more.

What is then important is that the training be put into practice and that the risk assessment process is subject to review by someone competent to decide whether the documentation is worth the paper (or electronic equivalent) it is written on.

So, what would be the point in then putting someone through 15-30 minutes of online "refresher" training perhaps with a test at the end in which someone has to get at least 7 out of 10 multiple choice questions right. If the "correct" answers to those questions are actually sound, most delegates should be able to pass without wasting time watching the slides.

Similarly, CDM - you might have people to whom any or even all of the CDM duty holder functions are delegated. What matters is what they do on CDM projects, not how well they do with the limittations of some short online "training" course. They have either taken on MOST of what they were supposed to learn during face to face training AND then reinforced that on the job, or they haven't. A short online "refresher" is not going to solve your problems if they didn't absorb the original training. All it is likely to do is give you a false sense of security. Next step after that is potential enforcement action or you fail some external audit.