How outsourcing IOSH training to a trusted supplier has helped ARU change behaviours

Introduction

Joanna Carrington is Head of Health and Safety at ARU. She explains how International Workplace has assisted the university’s H&S team by providing a range of eLearning courses in health and safety.

A solution for delivering IOSH courses across multiple sites

"We wanted to increase the level of IOSH level quality training in the University and we wanted an online package. We’re a multi-site university (spread across Cambridge, Peterborough, Chelmsford and London) and people are very busy. To get staff out of the office for at least three days at a location that may not be their base, to fill a training room with 12 people; I just knew that would be difficult and cause a barrier to training.

"Running the course online sat well with COVID-19 restrictions and it appealed to us that all users could access the training at any time from all campuses – we could save on the mileage, the catering, the logistics – because the user could fit it into their working time. We were very clear that this should be done in working time, not as a bolt on. We thought it would be more convenient for the key groups of people that we wanted to capture.

"Our estates team was already using International Workplace, so there was already continuity and people were familiar with the company. So that's why we went with International Workplace – the quality, the simplicity and the flexibility that they gave our trainees.

"We currently have around 110 users on the system and we're running IOSH Managing Safely, IOSH Managing Safely Refresher and IOSH Working Safely, and we’re trialling the IOSH Occupational Health and Wellbeing course, which has a good synergy with the IOSH Managing Safely course, but there's enough difference to make them viable as two separate courses."

How IOSH training developed staff initiative

"A member of our professional service staff completed the IOSH Working Safely course. She knew we had an inspection coming up, so off her own back she went and found our kick stool inspection list off the intranet, looked at all the kick stools and got rid of the faulty ones. She was proactive and felt empowered to go out and inspect the kick stools and get rid of the ones that weren't quite right. That's all you can ask for really isn't it, changing behaviours. And that's exactly what IOSH is all about. The course gave her a little bit of insight and, more importantly, gave her the confidence to find the inspection checklist and do something proactive. So that’s really positive."