Occupational Health and Safety Fundamentals for the Workplace Training Course

Course overview

Workplace incidents, near misses, occupational illnesses and unsafe conditions often persist because managers and supervisors do not have a consistent method for identifying hazards, assessing risk, assigning controls and verifying that controls work. This course gives professionals a practical operating framework for managing occupational health and safety in offices, facilities, warehouses, workshops and operational sites. It focuses on the decisions that need to be made before work begins, when conditions change and after an incident occurs.

Participants learn how to interpret core occupational health and safety duties; distinguish hazards from risks; conduct task-based risk assessments; apply the hierarchy of controls; and document safe systems of work. They practise using risk matrices, job safety analysis, incident investigation techniques, corrective-action registers and inspection checklists. The course also addresses consultation, contractor controls, emergency preparedness, occupational health exposures, safety communication and the performance measures needed to monitor an OHS management system.

Teaching combines instructor-led explanation with realistic workplace scenarios, facilitated risk-assessment workshops, inspection exercises and incident case analysis. Participants work with recognised frameworks including ISO 45001, ISO 31000, OSHA 29 CFR 1910 and HSE HSG65. By the end of the week, each participant produces a workplace OHS action pack containing a task risk assessment, control plan, inspection checklist, incident investigation summary and 90-day improvement plan that can be adapted for use in their own organisation.

The course is suited to professionals with operational, supervisory or management responsibilities who need to contribute confidently to an established safety programme. It is particularly valuable where safety responsibilities have recently been added to a role, where processes are inconsistent across teams, or where leaders need stronger evidence for prioritising corrective actions and resources.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Interpret core employer, supervisor and worker duties within an occupational health and safety management system
• Identify physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards using structured workplace observation
• Complete a task-based risk assessment using likelihood, consequence and residual-risk criteria
• Select controls using the hierarchy of controls and justify why lower-order controls are insufficient
• Develop a job safety analysis that defines task steps, hazards, controls and responsible persons
• Conduct a basic incident investigation using evidence collection, causal analysis and corrective-action tracking
• Create an inspection checklist and corrective-action register for a defined work area
• Prepare a 90-day OHS improvement plan with priorities, owners, measures and review dates

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Health and Safety Officers — who need a structured method for assessing risk and improving routine controls
• Supervisors and Team Leaders — who assign work, monitor conditions and must address unsafe acts or conditions
• Operations Managers — who balance production requirements with accountable risk-control decisions
• Facilities Managers — who oversee workplace conditions, contractors, maintenance and emergency arrangements
• HR Managers — who support consultation, wellbeing, return-to-work and occupational health processes
• Newly Appointed Safety Representatives — who need practical tools to participate effectively in workplace safety governance

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least basic familiarity with their own workplace activities, equipment, work areas or operating procedures, ideally gained through supervisory, operational, facilities or support responsibilities. They should be able to read a procedure, describe a work task step by step and use standard office documents or spreadsheets to record findings. Prior formal OHS training, engineering qualifications and prior experience with ISO 45001 are not required. This is a fundamentals course, but complete beginners should expect to work with realistic risk-assessment terminology, incident records and control-planning templates from the first day.

Training methodology

An experienced OHS instructor leads short, focused sessions on legal duties, risk methods and control strategies, then moves participants into applied workshops. Participants analyse task photographs, complete risk matrices, conduct a simulated workplace inspection and investigate an incident using witness statements, timelines and causal analysis. Small groups compare control options and defend their recommendations against operational constraints. Throughout the week, participants build sections of their own OHS action pack. The final session converts this work into a prioritised 90-day implementation plan for manager review.

Course outline

Day 1: OHS foundations and hazard recognition

• Purpose and structure of an occupational health and safety management system
• Employer, manager, supervisor and worker safety responsibilities
• ISO 45001 context, leadership and worker-participation principles
• Hazard, risk, incident, near miss and occupational illness definitions
• Physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazard categories
• Workplace observation techniques and hazard-spotting prompts
• Consultation, reporting routes and escalation of immediate danger

Workshop: Participants complete a structured hazard-identification walk-through from workplace images and produce a prioritised hazard list.

Day 2: Risk assessment and control design

• Task decomposition for job safety analysis
• Likelihood and consequence scoring using a risk matrix
• Inherent risk, residual risk and risk-acceptance criteria
• Hierarchy of controls from elimination through personal protective equipment
• Selection of engineering, administrative and procedural controls
• Control feasibility, effectiveness and human-factors considerations
• Documenting risk assessments, responsible persons and review triggers

Workshop: Participants develop a job safety analysis and risk assessment for a selected routine workplace task, including proposed controls.

Day 3: Safe work systems and operational assurance

• Safe systems of work and standard operating procedure controls
• Permit-to-work concepts for high-risk activities
• Contractor prequalification, induction and work-area coordination
• Planned workplace inspections and behavioural safety observations
• Inspection checklist design and evidence recording
• Corrective-action registers, due dates and closure verification
• Safety communication methods including toolbox talks and pre-start briefings

Workshop: Participants create an inspection checklist and corrective-action register for a workplace area with recurring safety issues.

Day 4: Incident investigation and occupational health controls

• Immediate response, scene preservation and initial notification
• Evidence collection through observations, documents and witness interviews
• Event timelines and causal-factor analysis
• Five Whys and barrier analysis for root-cause investigation
• Corrective and preventive action planning after incidents
• Occupational health exposure routes and health-surveillance triggers
• Ergonomic, fatigue, stress and psychosocial risk-control approaches

Workshop: Participants investigate a simulated lost-time incident and produce an evidence-based investigation summary with corrective actions.

Day 5: Performance monitoring and workplace implementation

• Leading and lagging OHS performance indicators
• Near-miss reporting quality and learning loops
• Internal audit preparation and ISO 45001 evidence requirements
• Management review inputs and risk-based decision making
• Emergency preparedness, drills and post-drill evaluation
• Prioritisation of OHS improvements using risk and resource criteria
• Ninety-day implementation planning and stakeholder communication

Workshop: Participants assemble their OHS action pack and present a 90-day improvement plan with priorities, owners, measures and review dates.

Tools & standards covered

ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems, ISO 31000:2018 Risk management guidelines, OSHA 29 CFR 1910 General Industry Standards, HSE HSG65 Managing for Health and Safety

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions