Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, lift truck training has remained as vital as ever in order for operators to continue working safely and efficiently. However, during the past year, we have seen an increase in enquiries from organisations looking to bring their training in-house and be more ‘self-sufficient’. But which is the right fit for your business – using a Training Provider or delivering RTITB Accredited training in-house?
The answer is: it depends! For some, having an in-house training team really works and brings great benefits. While for others, outsourcing operator training to an expert, such as an RTITB Accredited Training Provider, can be a fantastic option that gives businesses the training they need within their budget, to the right standard.
Training with an RTITB Accredited Training Provider
Using an RTITB Accredited Training Provider for lift truck training is a great choice where a business has no – or limited – in-house training resource. It provides access to the expert training needed to pass on the necessary skills and knowledge for safe operation and can add enormous value, bringing outside perspectives and vast experience to a business. Using an external provider also gives you an opportunity to ‘shop around’ and use different providers for different training needs and compare costs to find the right match for your budget.
Another benefit of using an RTITB Accredited Training Provider is that they are nationwide. So even if you need to carry out training across multiple sites, there is a trainer who can help. What’s more, this ensures a consistent standard of lift truck operation and safety across different sites, along with the peace of mind that there won’t be any gaps in learning, helping to support both operational efficiency and compliance. Every RTITB Accredited Training Provider must meet our high standards.
RTITB Accredited Training Providers are also committed to ensuring that they deliver good quality, standardised training that is COVID-secure. To reduce COVID-19 risks, many have also completed our free eLearning course ‘Managing COVID Risk During Lift Truck Training’.
However, there are many organisations that will find that delivering forklift operator training in-house is a better option for their particular needs.
Why deliver lift truck training in-house?
When a business delivers their own in-house lift truck training, they get full control. This means that training needs can be catered for even when there are peaks in demand (as was common throughout the COVID-19 pandemic). Sometimes availability of a chosen Training Provider may not match your desired timings, and this can cause delays.
Another key benefit of training in-house is self-sufficiency. During the COVID-19 pandemic some business policies didn’t allow suppliers, such as Training Providers, to visit on site, disrupting training plans. However, in-house instructors can continue to operate as normal and be on-hand to provide training as the need occurs.
Becoming RTITB Accredited for your workplace transport operations, including delivery of operator training in-house, can provide long-lasting benefits outside of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All-year round benefits of in-house forklift training
- Complete flexibility – By choosing to carry out forklift training in-house, businesses benefit from a whole new level of flexibility, allowing training to take place when it’s most convenient for both the trainee, the Instructor and the business too.
- Reduced costs – By choosing to become RTITB Accredited, we often find that businesses can reduce their overall training costs, as well as the associated costs of travelling to a training centre or staying off site. There is also the option to train around shift patterns and combine Basic and Specific training , reducing associated downtime.
- Access to a complete suite of training materials – As an RTITB Accredited Partner, businesses can access the RTITB eLibrary, a comprehensive online resource of ready-to-go training materials for forklift, plant and LGV, including presentations, videos, handouts, and more, developed by our experts. It’s a great way for in-house training teams and RTITB Accredited Partners to save time and keep compliant, plus you’ll be notified when any of our courses have been updated, helping save you time and ensuring you don’t miss a thing.
- Improved standards – Having your own in-house instructors can help to raise day-to-day operating standards in the workplace as operators can be monitored and assessed on-site. At RTITB, we often find that when training is delivered by a known and trusted colleague, operators’ benefit by viewing their Instructor as a mentor, helping them through their early career and to develop.
- Peace of mind – As an RTITB Accredited in-house training provider, you can rest easy with peace of mind in knowledge that your business has the independent assurance of legal compliance.
- Paperless certificates – There’s no longer a need to create physical certificates! With RTITB’s paperless solution, certificates can be issues within 4 hours on average. What’s more, RTITB Accredited Partners have the choice of whether MHE operator certificates are restricted for use exclusively within your business or can be transferable. There is no longer any need to issue ‘in-house’ certificates – all of your operator certificates can benefit from the backing and protection of RTITB accreditation.
- Innovative training tools – With RTITB Accreditation, organisations training lift truck operators in-house have access to a range of innovative solutions designed to transform the way you record training, conduct assessments and the associated administration. This results in significant savings in terms of time, and money. For instance, the innovative MyRTITB TrainingFriend app helps to cut administration time to a minimum by going completely paperless, and with the help of eTruck UK, produced in partnership with MA-system, time spent completing training can be reduced by up to 2 days.
RTITB Accreditation – other ways that it can help your business right now
With a range of features and services, RTITB Accreditation will help businesses to keep their entire lift truck operation safe and efficient. Our compliance experts will assess your entire forklift operation, not just your Basic forklift operator training, supporting operation-wide compliance. This is especially helpful now, where processes are continuously evolving around infection prevention and risk reduction is of the upmost importance.
We include an annual compliance HealthCheck for in-house Accredited Partners for complete peace of mind around legal and regulatory compliance in the event of an incident. Then, we provide an impartial report revealing potential risks, areas for improvement, good practice highlights, and recommendations on how to take action to remove risk from your lift truck operations.
To learn more about RTITB Accreditation for organisations delivering in-house lift truck training visit www.rtitb.com , email solutions@rtitb.com or call 01952 520200.