All businesses have a responsibility for fire safety including carrying out risk assessments, communicating risks to staff, putting in place appropriate safety measures, and delivering fire safety training.
The latter need in particular is frequently the cause of headaches for those designated as the ‘responsible person’ for fire safety, especially when required to deliver the training themselves, face to face.
It means that whenever a new person is hired, the responsible person has to take time out of their day to put together training materials and deliver training, as well deal with the necessary admin, which magnifies as a problem the bigger an organisation becomes.
eLearning benefits
While it’s true that face to face training has some unique benefits, eLearning is just as effective at reducing fire risk, as well as meeting your legal requirements around fire safety.
There are also several benefits for fire safety training only made possible with eLearning:
1. Training on demand
The online nature of eLearning means learners can be enrolled onto eLearning courses instantly and taking training within seconds.
This makes eLearning the most effective way to ensure new hires receive their mandatory fire safety training at the earliest opportunity, and more experienced members of staff can receive necessary refresher training whenever required.
2. Learners can train at any time, in any location
eLearning is the only training model where time and location are immaterial.
Courses are delivered online, so all learners require is a device with access to the Internet – no need to book an available face to face trainer and training room, or even for training to take place in regular work hours, or even at work.
3. Learners can train multiple times
With face to face training, work is carried out every time the training takes place, so if a learner needs refresher training, the cost is paid out again.
On the other hand, the bulk of the work in eLearning goes into the production of the course. Once that’s completed, learners can complete the course multiple times, perfect if they missed something during training or simply want to refresh their knowledge.
4. Some people engage better with eLearning
Appealing to different personality types and demographics is an increasingly discussed topic in business, as workplaces now span multiple generations and employers take factors like levels of introversion or extroversion into consideration.
The fact is that some demographics simply learn better through computers than face to face – if your staff are among them, then forcing them to train in other ways will always lead to poorer results.
5. eLearning makes record keeping far easier
If your business is ever audited, then you’ll be expected to present detailed records of your fire safety training, including the who, where, when and what of your training.
eLearning is the only training delivery model where record keeping is done automatically as a result of training being delivered. With any other form of training, it becomes someone’s job to maintain records, which leaves it open to human error and an endless amount of admin being created.
6. eLearning can be tailored to meet your organisation’s exact needs
Unlike training DVDs, eLearning courses are simple and cost-effective to tailor to the specifics of your organisation, which is a legal requirement of your fire safety training.
If there are any particular procedures which only apply to your business, or even a specific office, editing the content of an eLearning course is no more complicated than editing a Word document or PowerPoint presentation. If anything changes, eLearning can be updated rolled out to everyone within minutes.
Fire Safety eLearning
eLearning delivers a number of benefits which simply aren’t possible with other forms of training.
