Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to provide the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to keep its employees safe, and regulation 13 of the Management Regulations requires training on recruitment, on exposure to new or increased risks, and periodically thereafter. Training is therefore not a benefit; it is the way an employer shows the competence it is relying on actually exists.
In construction the ladder is well established: the one-day CITB Health and Safety Awareness course for everyone, the two-day Site Supervisors’ Safety Training Scheme for supervisors and gangers, the five-day Site Management Safety Training Scheme for site managers, and the Directors’ Role for Health and Safety for the people who carry the accountability. IOSH Working Safely, Managing Safely and Leading Safely serve the same three levels in every other sector, and the NEBOSH General and Construction Certificates are the recognised entry qualifications for anyone whose job is health and safety itself.
The training that changes behaviour is the training that is specific and well taught: a trainer who has run sites and investigated incidents brings the course to the room in a way a slide deck cannot. Records matter too: a training matrix that shows who is competent for what, and when it expires, is one of the first things an inspector or an auditor asks to see.