Training

Health & Safety training is an important element of your working life at the University of Reading and is a means of understanding how to do a task or activity safely without causing any ill-effects on health or workplace injuries.

The Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to provide whatever information, instruction, training and supervision is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the Health & Safety at work of their employees and other affected by their activities.

The benefits of providing Health & Safety training are:

Employee competency – understanding of how a task or activity should be carried out safely
Building a good safety culture
Legal compliance – meeting the legal requirements for Health & Safety in the workplace

Health & Safety Services offer a wide range of training courses for staff. From Health & Safety Induction to Laboratory Awareness and Risk Assessment , there is a course to cover many of the Health & Safety requirements on campus.

Links to each of the courses on our 2024/25 learning programme are below. To book onto a course please do this directly via UoR Learn or visit our Book Training page for more information.

If the course you are looking for is not here, or you would like to arrange a bespoke course for your department, then please contact us on 0118 378 7737 (internal 8888) or email safety@reading.ac.uk.

Course Title	Booking
Accident/Incident Investigation	Book Now (In-person) or Book Now (e-learning)
Asbestos Awareness	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Connecting Regulators & Gas Cylinders	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
COSHH Risk Assessment	Book Now (In-person)
DSE Administrator Training (Cardinus)
DSE Assessor Role Induction	Book Now (In-person)
Fieldwork Health & Safety Risk Assessment	Book Now (In-person)
Fire Safety Induction/Refresher	Book Now (e-learning)
Fire Evacuation Officer Training	Book Now (In-person) or Book Now (e-learning)
Fire Safety & Use of Extinguishers	Book Now (In-person)
Fire Evacuation Chair Operator Training	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Fire Wardens Training	Book Now (In-person) or Book Now (e-learning)
Food Safety & Hygiene	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
General Risk Assessment	Book Now (In-person) or Book Now (e-learning)
Genetic Modification: A course for researchers	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Health & Safety Coordinator Role Induction	Book Now (In-person)
Health & Safety Coordinator Refresher	Book Now (In-person)
Health & Safety Coordinator Workshop	Book Now (In-person)
Health & Safety Induction	Book Now (In-person) or Book Now (e-learning)
Health & Safety Inspection Mentoring	Book Now (In-person)
UoR Health & Safety Management System	Book Now (e-learning)
Introduction to Laboratory Safety for Biologists	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Lab Awareness: An Introduction to Safety in Research	Book Now (In-person)
Laboratory Risk Assessments & COSHH	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Laser Safety	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Local Committee Chairs	Book Now (In-person)
Managing Health & Safety for HSCs	Book Now (In-person) or Book Now (e-learning)
Manual Handling	Book Now (In-person) or Book Now (e-learning)
Manual Handling Risk Assessments	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Radiation Safety: X-Ray Generators	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Risk Assessment for Line Managers	Book Now (In-person)
Senior Leaders in Health & Safety	In-person training is available on request. Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk to schedule a course. or Book Now (e-learning)
Use of Ionising Radiation	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Using Liquid Nitrogen Safely	Please email vtsafety@reading.ac.uk for more information
Working at Height	Book Now (In-person)

Please note:

There is usually no charge for routine training courses delivered by Health and Safety Services staff. There may however be charges for courses provided by external companies.
First Aid/Appointed Persons training arranged by Occupational Health is free but there is a fee if staff book a place and fail to attend or give inadequate notice of withdrawal.

Cancellations

H&SS operate a cancellation policy for all training.

Please contact us as soon as you know that you are unable to attend a training course. We can often offer your place to someone else. A late cancellation fee of £40 may be charged to Schools/Functions when less than 2 working days’ notice is given of withdrawal. Cancellation by simply not turning up to a session will increase the fee to £50 (or the full per person course fee for external training courses e.g. First Aid).

If you are unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances, an email notification should be sent from your Line Manager to safety@reading.ac.uk and consideration will be given to a waiver of the charge.

For more information please access our cross charging and cancellation policy.

MB, July 2024

Fire Safety Film

Click here to watch our fire safety film.

Health and Safety Services training

Other training providers:

Things to do now

Book training using Employee self-service
Training needs analysis tool
Watch our Fire Safety Film

Contact Health & Safety Services:

email: safety@reading.ac.uk
tel: 0118 378 8888 (internal 8888)
Report an Incident Online