Asbestos Training – What is competency?

So, you might want to invest in giving your staff asbestos awareness training, but does this provide them with the required level of competency, to make sure that the regulations are being met?

There are a multitude of different providers for asbestos awareness training. Whether that is in-person training, or online training courses that will give a good basic understanding of what asbestos is, the risk it poses and what you should do if you think you’ve discovered or disturbed a material that could contain asbestos.

Making sure staff, such as those undertaking general maintenance, have completed basic training is a good start, but is it enough?

• Could there be other staff around our organisations who may need this training?
• What about the IT team who may be running cables around your building?
• What about the grounds staff who may be working in external buildings that contain asbestos, or disturbing ground that could contain asbestos debris?
• Is asbestos awareness training sufficient if you are responsible for managing a building that contains a long register of high-risk asbestos containing materials?

Undertaking a half-hour online asbestos awareness course may not give the competency required to make sure these materials are being effectively managed and may not give the in-depth knowledge of the Control of Asbestos Regulations needed, to be compliant.

• Should you be looking for a more management focuses training course or even a qualification such as BOHS P405 (other courses are available!)?
• And have you checked the competency of your contractors?
• If contractors arrive at your site to undertake structural works and don’t ask for your asbestos register, should you be concerned?
• You may have been supplied with some well written RAMS, but did you check they had trained their staff to be aware of the asbestos they may be exposed to on your site?
• Have you put together training matrix, so you know who has had what asbestos training and when your employees need to attend asbestos refresher training? This is something the HSE want to see in asbestos management plans.

The key aim of Control of Asbestos Regulations is to make sure that asbestos is being safely managed in buildings, so that those working in them are not exposed to asbestos fibres. This can only happen if the right people, with the right skills and experience, are in place to implement the aims of your asbestos management plan.