College delivers tasty solution to training
Nov 6 2008 by Evening Gazette
THE recent introduction of new health and safety legislation has caused a huge increase in demand in related training courses at a local further education college.
Redcar and Cleveland College has seen over 150 companies sign up for health and safety courses in the last 12 months after new, more stringent legislation, such as the Corporate Manslaughter Act, was introduced.
Employers now face much greater scrutiny under this legislation, as well as much tougher penalties – including a prison sentence if they are found to have been neglecting their responsibilities.
Amongst the first companies to get involved was Stokesley based food company Marlow Foods - pictured right. The company employs 20 staff as health and safety representatives who needed their training updating to reflect the latest requirements of health and safety legislation.
Working closely with the health and safety manager at Marlow Foods, the Redcar and Cleveland College Business Solutions team developed a tailored programme of training which took into account the unique nature of Marlow’s business.
Jeff Walby, SHE manager at Marlow Foods, worked on the development of the courses with the Redcar and Cleveland College team. He said: “Working with the Business Solutions Team at Redcar and Cleveland College allowed us to develop a programme of training that addressed the specific needs of our company and meant that all of our staff were up to date with the most recent developments in health and safety legislation.”
The training was delivered to Marlow’s staff over the course of two days at their own premises, by a specialist health and safety lecturer from the college.
Patricia Oswald, customer service manager at Redcar and Cleveland College said “New legislation introduced this year means that employers who do not keep up to date with health and safety training face potentially huge penalties if an accident does occur.
“Demand for health and safety training has never been higher and we are working with companies across the area, and further afield, to develop tailored training to suit their needs.”
Libyan students are on safe ground
A GROUP of students from Libya recently travelled almost 2,000 miles to the UK to benefit from industry leading tuition in health and safety at a local college.
Yousef Allasga, Abdulbaset Ali Abdulhafid and Bashir Taleb - pictured left, with Colin Willis, the Health and Safety course leader and lecturer Kevin Morris - travelled to Redcar and Cleveland College to study for the NEBOSH certificate in health and safety with the aim of picking up specialist knowledge which will assist with training workers at the Specific Training Centre working with oil companies in Libya.
After returning to Libya last month, all three are now sharing the knowledge they learned on the course with their colleagues who will train workers in the oil industry in Libya.
Colin Willis, health and safety course leader at Redcar and Cleveland College said: “Having one of the longest established and most advanced petrochemicals sites in the world on our doorstep means that Redcar and Cleveland College is uniquely placed to offer industry leading training for heath and safety in this industry.”
