Arbroath-based IED Training Solutions has joined forces with National Express to create the industry’s first IOSH-approved safety management training course specific to the bus and coach industry.
IED Training designed and produced the bespoke two-day ‘Managing Workplace and Transport Health and Safety’ course following a request from National Express to develop something appropriate for senior managers, supervisors, inspectors and SSOs, addressing key issues such as safety, security and employee health and wellbeing.
The new transport course took just eight months to deliver from the first application to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, in September 2017, to final approval and sign off in April, making it one of the fastest courses to receive IOSH approval and certification.
IED will hold the licence for the course, the first two of which were successfully delivered in June. Following the positive feedback, National Express has booked another 12 courses over the coming months until early 2019.
The two companies first started working together in 2017, when IED Training delivered a range of courses - fire safety, first aid and its IOSH-approved Managing Safely - to National Express subsidiary Xplore Dundee. IED was later asked to provide trauma and stress management consultancy to employees who may need additional support following an accident, bringing it to the wider attention of the senior management team at National Express HQ in the West Midlands.
Just weeks later, IED was commissioned to provide a comprehensive independent security review of National Express Bus, National Express Coach, West Midlands Tram, Victoria Coach Station London and all its human resource processes. IED’s findings and subsequent report were key to informing National Express’ risk management and emergency planning contingency.
The course comprises five modules: the legal environment, risk management, common hazards in the transport industry, health and safety and bus and coach safety control systems. Delegates will receive IOSH certification on successful completion of all five modules.
IED Managing Director Ian Clark said: “It has been a pleasure working with both National Express and Xplore Dundee over the past 18 months, and we are very much looking forward to continuing and growing that relationship in years to come.
“Our professional partnership has been very much built on our continued ability to deliver the very highest of standards, and to be adaptable to the ever-changing challenges in the bus and coach industry. We are very proud of our new Managing Workplace and Transport Health and Safety course, which in due course we will be offering to other transport providers.”
Xplore Dundee’s Engineering Manager Frank Sheach said: “This is the first IOSH-approved course specific to the bus industry and will be a really useful tool for our entire workforce and also for other operators across the country.
“The course fits in well with our company values which put safety at the top of the agenda and will be much easier for our employees to understand and translate into a work situation. IED have put a lot of work into this for us and we’re extremely pleased with the results of this partnership.”
