Asbestos awareness for trades who work on older buildings
This is PHW training with a certificate of completion. It is not an accredited qualification, so it is for you to decide whether it is enough for your business.
You pay £22.50 a place. You get one link to send to your people. Each person puts in their own name, does the course on their own phone, takes a test that marks itself, and gets a certificate with a QR code. You see who has passed. You sign off the practical on your own site.
£22.50 a place is the whole price. It costs the same for one place or fifty.
Asbestos is made of tiny fibres. You cannot see, smell or feel them in the air or on your clothes. That is why it is still hurting people.
When something containing asbestos is disturbed or damaged, fibres are released into the air. Breathe them in and they can cause serious diseases that cannot be cured. The most common are mesothelioma, asbestosis and asbestos-related lung cancer.
There is no warning. Symptoms can take anywhere from 15 to 60 years to show, and once someone has been diagnosed it is often too late to do anything.
HSE says asbestos is the greatest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain. Around 5,000 people die every year from asbestos-related diseases. Those deaths come from exposure that happened in the past.
Left alone and in good condition, asbestos is a low risk. The danger starts when somebody disturbs it. Drilling into a wall, refurbishment, fitting a smart meter and demolition can all do it.
The trades affected are general maintenance workers, electricians, plumbers, joiners, painters and decorators, plasterers, construction workers, roofers, shop fitters and gas fitters. If you open up the inside or the structure of older buildings, that is you.
A lad drills into a ceiling. Nothing smells or looks wrong. What does that tell him about asbestos?
About 20 minutes of lessons, then a 15-question test. The lessons are short, so people can do a bit at a time.
You get one link for your order. Send it to your people. Each person puts in their own name and takes a place, until the places run out.
It shows the person completed the online course and passed the test, and it carries a QR code anyone can scan. Keep it on file with the signed practical sheet. The certificate has no expiry date. HSE says there is no need to repeat a whole formal awareness course every 12 months, but some form of refresher should be given as necessary.
The online course cannot watch anyone on your site. You watch each person on the job, tick the checks on the sheet and sign. The checks are the register, the stop and report steps and the things never to do. Work on asbestos itself is outside this course and needs further training and a plan from you.
You do. You are the employer as well as the worker, so you check each step and sign the sheet.
Yes. It is written for a phone screen, and each person uses their own phone. The lessons are short, so they fit into a break.
Scan the QR code on it. It opens a page that confirms the certificate is genuine.
They are told which lessons to re-read, and they can sit the test again with a fresh set of questions. There is no limit on retakes.
It comes from the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and from guidance by the Health and Safety Executive and the UK Health Security Agency. Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and the UK Health Security Agency and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
They can ask for it again by email on the "Lost my link" page, as long as they gave an email address when they started.
This is PHW training with a certificate of completion. It is not an accredited qualification, so it is for you to decide whether it is enough for your business.