coteca.co.uk > Blog > Benefits of doing your Health & Safety Course Online v/s Classroom
The safety of construction sites in the UK highly relies on strong leadership. The CITB SSSTS and SMSTS courses function as a means of supporting this. These courses foster the development of skills necessary for safe and legal site operations. Workers often question whether SMSTS can be taken directly or if one has to go through SSSTS first. This question is particularly significant for the persons who are planning to leave the general site work and join the supervisory or management staff. This article provides a description of the interdependence between the two courses. We will also guide you on how to choose the right course for your career.
The SSSTS course is developed for site supervisors and those already engaged in supervisory duties or going to be so in the near future. The course gives a clear introduction to the law of health and safety, daily checks on site, and small team guidance. Besides that, it enlightens seniors about the different duties they have to perform as per the Health and Safety at Work Act and other UK laws.
The SMSTS course, however, is meant for site managers. These people are mainly responsible for planning, organizing, and controlling the whole site. It entails in-depth training in legislation, risk management, welfare, site documentation, contractor control, and leadership. SMSTS enables individuals to run a site safely and within the legal limits.
These two courses together are the very essence of the training path from supervision to management.
There is no requirement that SSSTS has to be taken before SMSTS. Applicants can take the SMSTS course even if they haven’t taken the SSSTS course. The only expectation is that the learners are either in a site management role or will be soon. For this reason, many of the experienced workers go directly into SMSTS and finish the qualification without taking SSSTS first.
This indicates that the SMSTS course is open to construction work professionals who plan to supervise and lead a site.
Although SSSTS is not a requirement, quite a number of students find that completing it before SMSTS is helpful. This is because SSSTS forms the foundation of site supervision. It gives the students a lot of essential concepts, such as simple risk assessments, safe systems of work, and good communication between the supervisors and the workers. All these skills help a lot in making the transition to the SMSTS course smoother.
The SMSTS pace is fast. It goes deeper into legal duties, larger site risks and management systems. For the learners who lack the supervisory background, the transition might be tough. SSSTS assists in closing that gap as it gives the early exposure to the responsibilities that later broaden in SMSTS.
SSSTS is highly beneficial for people new to safety or supervision in the construction industry.
There are numerous circumstances in which taking SMSTS without SSSTS is justifiable. Most of the time, workers with extensive site experience already perform tasks that are similar to supervisory duties. Others come from technical backgrounds where they are quite familiar with risk management, site procedures or law. Therefore, for them, SMSTS is just a logical next step.
In case a worker is going to step into a management position directly, then SMSTS is the right level of training for the entire responsibility that comes with it. Provided that they are able to comprehend basic site operations and their knowledge has reached the point where they feel secure.
The SMSTS course spans over five days, and full participation is mandatory. The training could be done in one week or spread across weeks. The areas covered include legal requirements and regulations, risk management, employee comfort, responsibilities to the environment, contract planning, and contractor management. It is also mandatory for the learners to take the necessary tests to prove their understanding.
Since the course is comprehensive, the participants are expected to be in a structured learning setting. A certain level of English fluency is required to participate in discussions, read and analyze papers, and perform the last test. Previous on-site experience is also a must-have, even if it was not through the SSSTS course.
The best way to make the decision is through evaluating your present level of expertise. In case you are quite sure about knowing the site processes, the obligations and risk management, you may be allowed to join SMSTS straight away. On the contrary, if you have never been a supervisor or your acquaintance with safety rules is rather limited, then attending SSSTS will be a very helpful way to go.
Going through SSSTS does not limit in any way one’s future career path. On the contrary, it helps to get better in SMSTS training as the person has already gained some knowledge. Hence, the decision is based on the nature of your work, how experienced you are, and your long-term objectives.
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