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EYES IN THE SKIES ONLINE TRAINING • A NEW APPROACH IS IMPROVING THE CAPABILITY OF REMOTE TRAINING AND EXAMINATION IN THE TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS BY AIR
INCREASING DIGITISATION IN the dangerous goods supply chain has provided plenty of opportunities to do things more efficiently and more effectively, providing greater visibility over goods in transit and opening up collaboration between the various players in the industry. Up until now, its impact in the training sphere has been limited but that has now changed with the arrival of a new concept from Dangerous Goods Online Training, established this past January. For all those involved with the transport of dangerous goods, training is part of the calendar, as much as holidays, tax returns and Christmas. Everyone needs it, both at their start of their job and every so often thereafter, according to the relevant regulatory provisions. For employers, there are really three options – unless there is an in-house trainer: either get a trainer into the facility to carry out the training, send employees out to classroom training, or try online training.
HCB MONTHLY | JULY 2020
In the current environment, with lockdowns, social distancing and travel restrictions, various regulatory and enforcement bodies have offered some relief from the need to meet the recurrent training requirement but, nevertheless, training is still needed. After all, ask any safety professional what the three most important things are to ensuring safety in transport and they are likely to answer: “Training, training and training”. So, given the difficulties in arranging face-to-face training right now, many employers are turning to online training. It offers several advantages, not least in terms of cost, but there are many who have viewed the online alternative as something of a second-class option. There is a suspicion that trainees can quite easily ‘game’ the system, doing just enough to show they are taking part but not actually taking anything in, while still getting a certificate at the end. Experienced instructors also know that, for training to be
effective, the trainer has to be able to see the whites of the trainees’ eyes, to see whether the message is being received and to identify where each trainee needs extra work. Online training – until now – has not been able to offer that. TAILORED TO TRAIN Dangerous Goods Online Training takes a different approach. While still using a modular curriculum, with trainees going through it step by step, those modules can be tailored to the particular needs of each trainee. Furthermore, those taking the courses are monitored on a daily basis to check how they are doing and to identify areas of weakness that need more work. Paul Horner, one of the three founding directors, is an experienced trainer in the transport of dangerous goods by air and was formerly with the International Air Transport Association (IATA); he explains: “The model we have is completely different to earlier systems. It requires 100 per cent commitment from students, who have to score at least 80 per cent in the training in order to be able to sit the final examination.” To do that, Paul is on hand to answer students’ questions by phone or email, and is also able to contact students proactively when they appear to be having difficulty. The link there is Paul’s wife, Lisa Horner, another
