OVERVIEW
This course provides an awareness of electricity so that you understand your legal responsibilities and how to work safely. Electricity is so much a part of everyday working life that it is easy to forget how dangerous it can be. According to HSE data, electricity causes around 1,000 reportable workplace accidents in Great Britain each year, of which roughly 25 to 30 are fatal, and electrical faults are a leading cause of accidental fires in commercial and domestic premises. Most of these incidents are entirely preventable through simple awareness and basic controls. The course explains the principles of electricity, the law that applies (in particular the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989), the hazards and hazardous activities you may meet, the harm that electricity can cause to the body, and the practical control measures, inspection and testing regimes, and emergency procedures that keep people safe.
It deals in detail with user checks, formal visual inspection, portable appliance testing (PAT), fuses, residual current devices (RCDs) and safe systems of work such as safe isolation. This is an awareness course suitable for all workers and their supervisors. It builds the understanding needed to recognise danger, take simple precautions, and know when a competent electrical person must be called. Importantly, completing this course does NOT qualify you to carry out electrical work, repairs or testing — only a competent person with the right training, knowledge and experience may do that.
