Training Partner - October 2021

I HAVE been involved in the safety training industry for a long time and have witnessed the change from amateur passionate practitioners trying to inspire those they taught to the largely commercially focused organisations that now dominate the global safety training market. 

The “Certificate” is fast becoming the be all and end all, with the training required to achieve this perceived as a necessary evil set up as an obstacle to the achievement of the goal. For organisations, though not all, compliance again seems to be the order of the day with a least cost/effort approach to ticking those boxes.

The change has been a slow but relentless process, with clever or sometimes not so clever marketing folk seeking to commoditise the course offering by focusing in on the “Certificate” - the benefits of having that particular piece of paper and on the singular fact that all successful learners achieve the same or equivalent “Level” “Certificate”. This is of course irrespective of who they train with and how they learn. Having removed the learning experience from the “sales pitch” we are left with price and gimmicks as the tools to attract business. I see many adverts selling certificates that do not even mention how the learning takes place, the offer simply being to buy the Certificate for £xxxx, while others try to bamboozle with bold meaningless sound bites that imply almost instant and guaranteed success.

I will stress this is not all; there are still some principled safety people out there trying to educate and inspire but their number is slowly diminishing as their generation, like me, reach retirement.

The consequence of this commercial shift is that, for many, the learning experience is poor and/or focussed exclusively on passing the assessment. The learners will make what they can of what they are delivered. Those really interested in the subject will engage, read more widely and gain a level of knowledge and understanding that will make them an asset to the safety profession. Others will do the minimum and, enabled by the focus on how to pass the assessment, will achieve the same piece of paper but it is questionable if they will ever be an asset to any profession.

We then have the competition between the various qualifications out there. Where standards set by one certificate brand are not easily achievable, up will pop an alternative qualification boasting less study time, easier assessment and higher pass rates. Barriers for training providers to deliver are less onerous and this again feeds the relentless dumbing down of the training and education aspect of the safety training profession.

I appreciate this is now the way of the world but fail to see the benefit of dumbing down in a profession whose primary purpose is to prevent accidents at work.

Those who award the certificates and set professional standards are not immune from the relentless commercialisation. Helping make the world a safer place is no longer sufficient with growth and profits becoming the norm for measuring success. Whilst good financial management is essential, I would argue that impact on safety culture should be a key measure of success for these organisations and collaboration is a better route than competition. 

Safety is a complex business and not for the lazy or faint hearted. There is a lot to learn both through study and application. If the goal is to master the subject, then there are no shortcuts, either with the learning or the practical experience of applying that knowledge. So, when buying your next certificate, don’t ask how much, ask what will I learn, how will I learn it, how will it benefit me, my career and perhaps will it help me contribute to improving safety standards and culture?

Gary Fallaize is managing director at RRC. For more information, visit www.rrc.co.uk