Face to Face, but Staying Safe!
Well… maybe not quite ‘face to face’ yet, but close contact training has to change to ensure that in this COVID-19 affected world, we provide the best close at hand training without posing a risk to our client’s safety. But how do we do that?
Well, in the Health and Safety and Fire Safety Training Industry we already have a head start. After all, our business is based on how to deal with threats and dangers. So COVID-19 transmission is just one more danger we have to deal with. Okay… so usually we can control dangers like fire and smoke etc while we use them to train clients, but COVID-19 is a little different because we can’t just pretend it’s there or control it. We can only recognise its encompassing potential for harm and then mitigate the danger.
While conducting safety training we need to recognise the pervasive danger of COVID-19. So what can we do to stay safe? Here are some simple health precautions to have on site or in the classroom:
- Make hand sanitiser available to all
- Use a simple temperature test
- Wear a mask and gloves
- Social Distance
Yes, we all know this, but providing safety measures that are easy to follow and practical, needs some careful thought. For example, have you made it obvious in your training area how to keep your distance perhaps with visual aids? Is the mask that you wear to the correct standard to be confident of zero transmission during the training session and are the masks that your clients are wearing appropriate? And what is your plan to deal with someone (client or staff) who has a high temperature reading and shows up ready for your course?
“Thoroughly prepare and inform your clients of safety procedures”
These are just the basics, so it’s important to thoroughly prepare and inform your clients of safety procedures well before the event. Taking the time before a training event to carry out a risk assessment, whether it’s at your premises or at the client’s site is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks and actions to take in your workplace.
A good training facilitator will treat the COVID-19 risk seriously, recognising that whatever the training course may cover for that day, they will also be training their clients how to be COVID-19 safe too. After all, you don’t want to train individuals about the correct procedures for a Confined Space rescue, only for the client to complain that you endangered their staff with lax COVID-19 safety procedures.
Responsible Training Companies will have researched, practiced and embedded COVID-19 safety procedures with their staff in the same way they would with any other potentially dangerous threat. While general Health & Safety, Fire Safety, Working at Height and Confined Space training will always be needed by commercial and industrial clients, perhaps now we’ll also have another area of training to offer… germ protection in the workplace?
“Train safely and ensure that ‘face to face’ always remains safe.”
Many of the actions and precautions to stay safe during training sessions are now becoming the accepted norm in the general population. The professional trainer however needs to carefully assess the practical and legal requirements to train safely and ensure that ‘face to face’ always remains safe.
MidlandsFRS Offer Safety Training both Online and Face to Face… and yes our priority is to keep you safe. Tel: 03333 44 99 08