The Occupational Health and Safety Act requires companies to adhere to specific health and safety requirements, one requirement being to conduct Occupational Health and Safety training with accredited and therefore recognized health and safety training providers.
These health and safety training South Africa providers ideally should be able to provide the training throughout Southern Africa. A company may request that any of the following internal staff to source an appropriate health and safety training providers:
- Human Resources department or manager;
- Learning and development department or manager;
- Health and safety department or manager;
- Operations or financial manager;
- Security or facilities management.
Where do they start and what information is required to complete this task? The information in this blog article will hopefully assist companies or individuals in sourcing quality and good occupational health and safety training, or health and safety training providers, who offer competitive health and safety course prices.
Why is it necessary to conduct Health and Safety Courses
To ensure that all companies, or departments or any organizations employees and staff work in a healthy, safe and prepared working environment, the occupational health and safety act requires accredited occupational health and safety training to be conducted across their structures.
If employees have not completed any health and safety training or courses then the employees, which includes management and all employees, won’t know how or what to comply with, or how to implement compliance. The act, municipal bylaws and SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) require and clearly state that companies and employers need to provide occupational health and safety training and must use accredited health and safety training providers this is a SAQA requirement, that all training must be accredited.
OHS Act Section 8 – General duties of employers to their employees
(1) Every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of its employees.
(2) Without derogating from the generality of an employer’s duties under subsection 1, the matters to which those duties refer include in particular:
(e) providing such information, instructions, training and supervision as may be necessary to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of his employees;
OHS Act Section 18 – Functions of Health and Safety Representatives
3) An employer shall provide such facilities, assistance and training as a health and safety representative may reasonably require and as have been agreed upon for the carrying out of his functions.
Emergency Services By-laws – Section 18 – Duties of owner or occupier of designated premises
Every person who resides or works on premises with an emergency evacuation plan should be suitably trained in:
This required legislated health and safety training enables employers and their staff to work in a safe and prepared working environment, where workplace hazards are identified, rated, reported on, then mitigated or eliminated. In doing this the chance of injury is reduced and should it occur then the OHS teams will be able to tackle the emergency and assist where needed.
How does a company source the right health and safety training providers?
Approaching the most suitable and best occupational health and safety training providers can be challenging, because the client does not know what the required requirements actually are. Some training providers are un truthful and un ethical which makes it even more difficult for the client, or company.
A good way to source an accredited occupational health and safety training provider is to contact the Health and Welfare Sectional Education Training Authority (HWSETA) which is the training authority responsible for health-related training. They have provincial offices in each province and should be able to provide you with a list of accredited training providers who offer health and safety courses South Africa.
Google is also a great tool and means of sourcing the appropriate training company and there are many suitable providers in our country. Once the training company has been contacted it is critical for them to provide you with all their accreditation certificates, such as:
- HWSETA accreditation;
- Department of Labour accreditation;
- Resuscitation Council of SA accreditation – which is not critical but rather advisable.
The training provider and their instructors or assessors must be subject matter experts, such as paramedics, firefighters and health and safety specialists, with operational experience and a proven track record. Also request reference letters from other clients who are currently using the health and safety training provider, which you are considering using.
What Health and Safety courses are available?
There are a host of or many health and safety training courses which clients or delegates can choose from to attend, but there are at least 5 health and safety training courses that must be attended by the correct staff of any organization, company or department, they are listed below:
- First Aid Level 1 – 2 days;
- Firefighting – 1 day;
- Evacuation Planning – 1 day;
- Health and Safety Representative – 1 day;
- Health and Safety Supervisor – 2 days
The above 5 courses attended by the correct staff and correct number of staff will enable a company to implement and comply with the OHS act and its requirements, if supported by management.
First aid, firefighting and evacuation planning must be completed by nominated or volunteered staff at a ration of 1:50 employees. This is the OHS Team and they must be trained by a health and safety training provider with full SETA accreditation. First aid certificates are valid for 3 years and firefighting and evacuation planning is valid for 2 years.
The health and safety representatives and the health and safety supervisors form part of the OHS Committee who assist the company in running and implementing health and safety across the entire structure. They also assist the OHS Team during and evacuation or emergency. These 2 certificates are valid for a 2 year period.
Other occupational health and safety training or health and safety courses South Africa which are also important and have value would include:
- Incident Investigation – 1 day;
- Risk Assessment or Hazardous Incident Investigation (HIRA)
- -1 day
- Health and Safety Specialist or Officer – 10 days;
- Advanced firefighting – 2 days;
- Other First aid course levels – 2 to 3 days;
- Specialized course such as working at Heights, snake handling
- training etc
What is a good, cost-effective course price?
There are health and safety training providers that offer competitive health and safety course prices in South Africa. Listed below are competitive course prices for the 5 important health and safety courses which must be attended:
- First Aid Level 1 – 2 days – R795.00 ex VAT;
- Firefighting – 1 day – R695.00 ex VAT;
- Evacuation Planning – 1 day – R695 ex VAT;
- Health and Safety Representative – 1 day R695.00 ex VAT;
- Health and Safety Supervisor – 2 days – R1,250.00 ex VAT.
What is critical is to ensure that the health and safety training provider who is quoting you is fully accredited for all the course they are quoting on. If the health and safety course price is much cheaper than other providers then that training provider may not be fully accredited, or even accredited at all.
Compared to other training courses in South Africa the health and safety training course prices are well priced and affordable. Remember that training needs to be paid in advance to secure the training courses or event, as once the course is trained then the knowledge is shared or delivered. All delegate course certificates must also be available in the OHS file and saved in the delegates personal files.
Absolute Health Services is fully accredited and their course prices are very attractive or cost effective. Our core service offering pillars include cost effective, professional, quality and client focused.