Health and Safety Training Courses
Health and Safety training is a legal requirement according to the Occupational Health & Safety Act.
Absolute Health Services specializes in providing a suite of quality, professional and accredited occupational health and safety training. These courses assist employers, their employees, contractors, and the general public in better understanding and implementing the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act 85 and its compliance requirements.
Health and safety is often viewed as a complicated, daunting, and frustrating legislative requirement that needs to be implemented, but once the subject, course, and contents are understood and successfully completed, health and safety becomes a fairly simple, logical, and effective system and process to implement.
Organisations, companies, departments, and employers, require their employees and workforce to be skilled in various occupational health and safety-related courses such as health and safety officer, supervisor, representative, risk assessments, OHS act, 16.2 workshop etc. Together with management’s support, these various courses up-skill the workforce and empower them to successfully implement health and safety requirements into the workplace.
OHS act compliance assists in creating a healthy, safe, and prepared working environment. By attending our Health and Welfare SETA occupational health and safety training courses, the act’s requirements and objectives are better understood and easier to successfully implement, to the benefit of everyone.
Our Occupational Health and Safety Courses
Health & Safety Officer Course
This specialized health and safety officer course is aimed at empowering delegates with a broad holistic and logical view and understanding of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) act and environment. Popular for delegates wanting to start a new career in OHS and learn how to successfully implement health and safety within the workplace. This course is one of our top-quality courses and we recommend it to all our delegates and clients.
Price:
R8,410.00 excluding VAT
Duration:
10 Days
Accreditation:
Accredited with the Health and Welfare SETA
Health & Safety Supervisor Course
The Health and Safety Supervisor course is a very popular and comprehensive two-day course aimed at and designed for managers, departmental heads, and supervisors. The course content is specific for supervisors and managers and covers a broad range of important sections and requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety act, in order for them to understand and implement health and safety compliance requirements. There is a lot of information that is summarized and well laid out to highlight the important aspects and content on safety management.
Price:
R1,225.00 excluding VAT
Duration:
2 Days
Accreditation:
Accredited with the Health and Welfare SETA
Health & Safety Representative Course
Health and Safety Representatives play an important role in any company’s health and safety structure and strategy. They represent the employee’s interests at the quarterly health and safety committee meetings, and together with management support, assist in driving workplace safety within the company. This course empowers delegates, enabling them to operate as representatives in any workplace environment. This is a very popular course, as having a health and safety representative is one of the OHS acts legal requirements.
Price:
R795.00 excluding VAT
Duration:
1 Day
Accreditation:
Accredited with the Health and Welfare SETA
Hazard Identification Risk Assessment (HIRA) Course
One of the primary objectives of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act is to identify the various health and safety related hazards and risks within a workplace, and then implement effective controls in order to eliminate or minimize the risk of injury and/or ill health. This course upskills and assists delegates in how to achieve workplace safety and create a healthy and safe working environment for everyone’s benefit.
Price:
R875.00 excluding VAT
Duration:
1 Day
Accreditation:
Accredited with the Health and Welfare SETA
Occupational Health & Safety Act Course
This Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) act course is aimed at highlighting and understanding the important sections and parts of the OHS Act 85 of 1993 and assisting delegates with building confidence and better understanding the act. The act can seem daunting and complicated, but on successful completion of this course, safety management within the act is better understood and the delegate is able to tackle implementation more confidently.
Price:
R875.00 excluding VAT
Duration:
1 Day
Accreditation:
Accredited with the Health and Welfare SETA
16.2 Workshop
Our 16.2 Workshop is a short 2-hour workshop developed for top management, employer representatives, departmental heads, and supervisors with limited time but who need to understand the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) act better and implement health and safety compliance within their organisations or departments. The workshop is interactive, enjoyable and a beneficial health and safety workshop experience. 16.2 Workshop can be offered online or face to face.
Price:
R525.00 excluding VAT
Duration:
2 Hours
Accreditation:
The workshop is not accredited with any training authority as it is a workshop.
Incident Investigation Course
This course empowers the Incident Investigator with the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct investigations correctly and confidently.
Price:
R875.00 excluding VAT
Duration:
1 Day
Accreditation:
Accredited with the Health and Welfare SETA
Employers must provide workplace safety
It is essential for every company or establishment to have a dedicated health and safety team which has been trained by a competent and accredited health and safety training provider, in order to protect:
- Employees and visitors from unnecessary injury, illness, disability or even death;
- The company and it’s staff from hazards such as fires and unexpected accidents and incidents;
- The business’s assets and the general environment;
- Workers from exposure to unnecessary chronic occupational illness;
- The business against unnecessary financial losses and insurance claims.
In a legal health and safety case, a motion was filed in South Africa for class certification for as many as 17,000 ex-gold miners who were suffering from the lung disease silicosis. The class action listed 30 gold mining companies as defendants. The plaintiffs alleged that although the companies had known of the dangers posed to the miners when they were exposed to silica dust, adequate measures to protect the miners were not forthcoming. Six companies targeted in the lawsuit had to pay up to approximately $400 million.
Looking after the health and workplace safety of the employees is not an option; it is an obligation! The more dangerous the industry, the riskier it becomes for everyone to ignore health and safety compliance and health and safety training in the company.
Each of these courses has something unique to offer, and training staff in different courses can provide your company with a great foundation for a progressive and effective occupational health and safety system.
It’s important to note that there are occupational health and safety training courses are required in order to be occupational health and safety act legally compliant; and there are other courses that are not required but assist in boosting the effectiveness, quality and preparedness of your health and safety team, and ultimately the wellbeing of all the employees.
Health and Safety Certificates are issued after successful completion of a theoretical and practical competency assessment.
Courses are accredited and recognised by the various and necessary statutory bodies such as the Health and Welfare Sectional Educational Training Authority (HWSETA), Department of Labour, Resuscitation Council of South Africa (RCSA) and the American Emergency Care and Safety Institute (ECSI).
Examples of unsafe acts and conditions in the workplace include:
- A disregard by staff for health and safety, rules, regulations and legislative requirements;
- Untrained health and safety team, so an unprepared working environment;
- Poor maintenance of buildings, tools, vehicles, storage facilities, etc;
- Poor general housekeeping discipline and leadership;
- Inadequate machine guarding, poor layout of workshops or work-yard space;
- Working without approved or adequate personal protective equipment (PPE);
- Lack of training in direct job skills and other work skills.
Did you know…the CEO is personally responsible?
Did you know that the CEO is responsible for workplace safety, and could be held personally liable if the necessary health and safety requirements are not implemented?
Under Section 16 of the OHS Act, – “The Chief Executive Officer is charged with certain duties and responsibilities in terms of health and safety. The CEO may nominate someone within their working environment who can assist the CEO in carrying out their health and safety obligations, this is the 16.2 appointee and often this is the HR manager or a senior manager within the company”.
The responsibility of health and safety compliance still lies with the CEO, but the 16.2 assists the CEO under their direction and control, to implement effective health and safety systems, structures and achieve OHS Act compliance.
By sending the correct employees on occupational health and safety training or safety management courses, staff will be able to implement workplace health and safety measures. A critical component in achieving this is to establish an effective health and safety committee structure. The committee members must be sent on the correct health and safety training courses, such as Health and Safety Specialist or Supervisor or Safety Management course.
Your health and safety team needs to be trained by a specialist health and safety training provider. They will advise your team correctly and assist management with implementing tailored and appropriate systems to achieve health and safety compliance and workplace safety.
Why workplace safety is important in all industries
Many people think that occupational health and safety only applies to specific industries such as the mining and construction industry, and not the traditional administrative office space. But…the Occupational Health and Safety Act applies to all workplaces, employers and employees.
Having a proactive health and safety training program and reducing the risks and hazards for all employees, is essential for any forward-thinking and proactive business.
For “lower risk” industries, the dangers may not be as obvious, but bad ergonomics, unexpected heart attacks or other medical emergencies, accidents and incidents such as trips, slips and falls can also cause health and safety related injuries.
From a health and safety perspective, staff need to be trained on how to use all equipment and how to use all equipment safely. Standards, policies and procedures need to be implemented to protect the company and its employees.
Compliance with the OHS Act reduces the risk of possible fines and criminal liability from the Department of Labour for non-compliance. Contact Absolute Health Services your “OHS professionals” and find out how we can assist you with your occupational health and safety training certificates, equipment requirements and other health and safety training and management service requirements.
Compliance also has a host of other benefits such as reduced employee absenteeism due to injury and increased employee productivity due to a positive, healthy and safe working environment.
Being OHS compliant is not an option; it is an obligation which all CEO’s, employers and employees must enforce and implement if they want to ensure that they remain OHS act and Department of Labour compliant, as well as ensuring that their primary assets are kept healthy and safe.
What to look for in health and safety training providers
As with any service provider, some companies are better than others, for many different reasons. When the wrong provider is chosen, your business is open to:
- Being deemed non-compliant by the DoL because of incorrect advice and guidance;
- If the provider is not accredited with the right training authorities, you may lose money because you’ll need to change providers and still not be deemed compliant even though you’ve invested in training and setting up an entire program already;
- Potential lawsuits if the health and safety training provider does not have the correct accreditations and someone is injured in the workplace;
- Clients require companies that offer services to them to be Occupational Health and Safety act compliant and they need to prove this, or the service provider or supplier may not get the work or possible tender.
When conducting your research as to which provider is the best to use, follow these professional tips from Absolute Health Services:
Is the supplier accredited?
It is imperative that the providers of health and safety courses are accredited with the necessary training authorities such as:
- HWSETA (Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority) accreditation is critical for all your health and safety training courses.
- Current Department of Labour accreditation to train first aid is also critical.
- Resuscitation council of Southern Africa for CPR training.
Using a health and safety training provider that is not HWSETA or DoL accredited is a waste of company funds as the Dol will not recognise the training and you will be deemed to be non-compliant.
Do they have a good track record?
Ensure that your service provider for health and safety courses has trained and provided training for large and reputable companies.
This is a very good indication that you can probably trust this training provider. You should, however, ask for reference letters from the training provider’s clients.
It is always a good idea to get recommendations from other companies who have trained before you, so be sure to look for reviews and testimonials.
Can they tailor health and safety courses to your needs?
Some companies’ health and safety structural and training requirements are different, so you’ll need a training provider that will be able to assess your company’s workplace requirements and advise on how best to achieve OHS compliance and provide the necessary training and certificates.
Do they offer a holistic approach?
Over and above providing the necessary accredited health and safety courses for your company, is your supplier assisting you to remain and maintain health and safety compliant? Or if you have not yet chosen a supplier, find out what additional services they are able to offer to achieve and maintain your compliance status.
Are they able to provide the necessary health and safety equipment such as evacuation plans, firefighting equipment installations and servicing, first aid kits and directional signage?
Remember that just because you have completed the necessary health and safety training courses, doesn’t mean that your OHS requirements and obligations stop there. You still need to implement the OHS committee, appoint ohs team members, perform health and safety risk assessments, implement workplace safety systems, standards, policies and procedures.
