by Bob Hayward | Mar 15, 2023 | Employment & skills, Our News, RTITB, Training courses
Five years ago, on 12th March 2018, we proudly completed our very first training courses, a Counterbalance and Reach truck refresher for one person. Since then, we’ve gone on to help a further 504 people achieve another 709 certificates in a huge variety of courses, across the regulated training spectrum!
We’ve helped 67 businesses and charities ensure they are meeting their legal obligations and we’ve helped 171 private individuals gain new certificates and keep their own certification and qualifications up to date.
But more than that, we hope we’ve made a real difference along the way. By working closely with some charities and agencies, we’ve been able to help people who have found themselves in a tough spot and just need a little help to lift them back up.
It’s been an absolute pleasure and a privilege working alongside the people we’ve worked with over the last five years, and we hope that if you’ve attended a course with us, we’ve been able to make your working life just that little bit more enjoyable, or we’ve played our part in giving you a helping hand just when you needed it.
Contact us on 01793 975353 or david.gearon@keyperformancetraining.co.uk for more information, or visit our website here. Find out about our courses here.
by Bob Hayward | Jan 26, 2023 | Our News, RTITB, Training courses
Why chose RTITB accredited training?
Key Performance Training is proud to be an RTITB accredited lift truck training company, but what does this mean for you when choosing which company to train with?
The RTITB is the gold standard of training in our industry, and we only use RTITB accredited instructors and examiners for all our lift truck courses
We know that the best lift truck instructors want to deliver high standards of training. They want to ensure their training candidates are engaged with their courses, and to make sure that the lift truck operators they train can ultimately work safely and efficiently. By using only RTITB accredited trainers, we can guarantee that all our courses meet these high standards.
We have access to their range of high-quality materials. We avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’, as no one enjoys long slide presentations, and instead use expertly designed course materials which are engaging for learners. We include different training delivery methods, such as group contributions, group participation and demonstrations, which help make the training more interactive.
We also have high quality question papers and mock theory papers, which enable good preparation and revision for our delegates, and all our materials are regularly updated, to ensure legal compliance.
The result is better engagement, leading to more knowledgeable forklift operators.
When instructors are trained and examined to the RTITB standard, you can be confident that they will deliver training to a high standard because they hold a sought-after, professional qualification.
For businesses, using RTITB instructors helps ensure the highest training and safety standards are upheld, and ensures that their training complies with guidance by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
We believe in offering high quality, engaging training and that’s why the RTITB standard is so important to us. We are audited on an annual basis as well, so you can be confident that these high standards are constantly being met and maintained.
by Rachel Gearon | Dec 15, 2022 | Industry news, Our News, RTITB
If you’ve had the new style eCard following a course with us, do you know how to access them? We have received a number of queries about this, so we thought we’d share with you the RTITB’s simple guide on how to do this.
As well as a ‘getting started’ document there are videos to show iPhone and Android users how to access your eCards, so check us out on social media for access to these as well.
Contact us on 01793 975353 or david.gearon@keyperformancetraining.co.uk for more information.
by Rachel Gearon | Apr 28, 2022 | Employment & skills, RTITB, Training courses
Key Performance Training is pleased to offer eLearning, enabling you to move the theory part of a course from the classroom to online.
Whether you’re looking to become a forklift operator, keen to refresh your skills, or you’re a company looking to upskill your current workforce, RTITB’s eLearning material is designed with operators in mind.
The eLearning is self-paced, so you can gain access to training materials to complete as and when you want, taking as long as you need, then complete in-person practical training at a later date.
Here are just some of the benefits of using RTITB eLearning and completing a course with us:
• Operators are kept engaged at all times, with interactive quizzes and videos
• Access the eLearning material anywhere, and at a time that suits you, on a number of devices, including mobile, table and PC
• Reduce practical training time (for example for a novice Counterbalance course a 5-day course could be reduced to 3 days)
• Operators are out of the business for a shorter time, minimising costs, and downtime
• Revisit the eLearning at any time to refresh knowledge
• Save time and money on travel to training courses (and in some cases hotels)
To get started with RTITB eLearning and learn more about our course offering, availability, and pricing, please give us a call on 01793 975353 and we’ll be delighted to discuss this with you.
Coming soon….10 Ways to Improve Reach Truck Safety
by Rachel Gearon | Apr 6, 2022 | Employment & skills, Industry news, RTITB, Training courses
We all know that safety guidelines are put in place for us all to adhere to, but putting this into practice can often feel like a chore in an already never-ending to do list. Incredibly, around 75% of critical incidents involve pedestrians who were completing tasks unrelated to the operation that was being carried out at the time of the incident. Adopting a culture of strict safety discipline in the warehouse could save more than just one life.
Many incidents involve pedestrians suffering crush injuries while trying to steady the load, or get involved in the loading or unloading of the forklift. These types of accidents and injuries are avoidable because the pedestrian should never need to be in the path of the forklift. There are many ways that this can be implemented in and around the warehouse:
- Designation
With designated operation areas, walkways, and clear signage in the warehouse you can remove any doubt or uncertainty. Consistent, clear instructions and directions that leave no room for ambiguity are essential. Of course, there are some grey areas that can’t be easily segregated, but in these areas safe working boundaries need to be communicated and upheld at all times. Establish safe operating distances and provide staff with guidance around forklift operation, and the loading and unloading of materials.
The most efficient warehouses make use of timetables to rotate staff to different locations, depending on the tasks they need to complete that day. This is to ensure pedestrian tasks aren’t being carried out alongside forklift tasks. Another useful addition to the warehouse is a traffic management system, such as one-way systems to reduce the risk of collisions.
Strong communication systems allow all members of staff to share the responsibility for keeping everybody safe. For example, co-workers need to be able to quickly and efficiently alert one another when an individual is in their workspace, or if somebody notices a truck losing its load during operation, or a driver leaving an unsafe distance between the truck and the pedestrian.
All of this and more is covered on our Forklift Training Course. Get in touch today to find out more.
by Bob Hayward | Mar 17, 2022 | Employment & skills, Industry news, RTITB, Training courses
It is reported that overall accident rates are lower in workplaces where the wider workforce participates in health and safety and employees feel they have a say. The awareness of the risks of slips and trips, for example, is supposedly greater (62%) where the workforce is consulted on health and safety issues, than when there is no involvement (28%).
What employers with workplace transport operations can take from this, is that to reduce risk of incidents, it’s important for lift truck operators to understand their role in health and safety and feel they can actively contribute. In research, 77% of the workforce felt encouraged to raise concerns in a good health and safety climate to 20% who felt encouraged to do so in a poor health and safety climate.
Forklifts are one of the most commonplace types of equipment in logistics and warehouse operations, yet they are also among the most dangerous – it is suggested that 8,000 workplace incidents involving lift trucks are reported annually. With this in mind, your forklift operators may be some of the best positioned employees to understand workplace risks related to material handling and to take an active role in contributing to health and safety improvements.
So, what can employers do to help engage lift truck operators in health and safety more and positively influence their behaviour?
- Communicate the impact of incidents
Having a culture where incidents are never just an inevitable part of the job is key. Moreover, operators should have a clear awareness of the potential impacts of a lift truck incident occurring. At the most serious end of the spectrum, this can include life-changing and fatal injuries.
To tackle these subjects effectively, two-way communication is needed between trainers, health and safety managers and compliance managers, and their lift truck operators. What this looks like will be different depending on your organisation’s size and culture. However, a lift truck operator training environment is one good place to have these conversations, especially as regular training of operators is required for compliance.
For novice operators, the eTruck UK forklift and reach truck theory eLearning solution from RTITB helps support this, and encourage behaviour change around risk. Rather than a traditional presentation-led style of training, eTruck tells the story of a lift truck accident and the chain of events leading up to it. Operators must engage with the story to understand and anticipate when, why and where the accident will occur. This gives a greater understanding of safe operating practices and the impact of an incident on the wider operation.
- Educate on the role of Managers and Supervisors
It would be easy for operators to feel that should any incident occur, that it’s not entirely their fault, and it is true that their Managers and Supervisors have a significant role to play. Incidents often occur as a result of poor or non-existent supervision, so to reduce risks and comply with the law, those in these senior roles must be correctly trained, just as operators must be correctly trained.
However, operators must be made aware that they do have a level of accountability and therefore must always operate to the safety standards delivered via their lift truck operator training and follow the organisation’s rules and processes around health and safety.
- It all starts with training
Employers must remember that for compliance and safety, lift truck training should always be the first step. It is vital for not only educating operators on how to use and work around lift trucks, but also how to reduce risks to themselves and others.
There is a mandatory level of lift truck operator training required for compliance, and it is crucial to keep this up to date with refresher training or conversion training (if required). This is an essential for employed staff, as well as temporary and contract workers. For safety, only correctly trained staff should be given an Authorisation to Operate equipment.
However, businesses should always continue to undertake regular risk assessments and assessments of operators to ensure optimum safety practices and deliver remedial or additional training as and where needed.
RTITB Accreditation could support safety in your operation.
