There comes a time in your career when the boredom sets in, you feel as though you’ve done everything many times over and you are ready for another challenge...

Once your health and training course is complete, toolbox talks are essential for continuing your development and sustaining your knowledge.

In our last post we discussed why toolbox talks are beneficial to a construction site team. In this article, we explore what makes a talk effective and engaging.

This is the first in a series of three articles which covers toolbox talks.

We have plenty of options for busy labourers, supervisors and managers who need to find a local training course that fits their hectic schedule. Read on to find out more.

As you move up the chain of command and distance yourself from the people working on the building site, factory floor or in your warehouses, it can become easy to rely on those closer to the action when it comes to health and safety.

After all, if you have a health and safety officer isn't it their sole responsibility to ensure the health and safety of everyone?

Have you ever got chatting to someone and found you have lots in common? Perhaps you live in the same town, have the same job in construction management, support the same football team. And then they drop the bombshell.

They're doing training you want to do with a really local training provider you've never heard of. How did that happen? After all you must have spent hours trying different keyword combinations searching Google for a local SMSTS course.

Choosing an appropriate health and safety management course, such as whether to do the IOSH Managing Safely course or the CITB SMSTS course, can be a decision that's almost as difficult as completing the course itself.

While there isn't an actual SMSTS card, your SMSTS certificate can be added to your CSCS (Construction Skills Certification Scheme) card to show additional experience to the qualifications CSCS asks for.

SMSTS courses, accredited by CITB, are designed to train you in all aspects of environmental and health and safety legislation that will come under your responsibility as a construction site manager but you can't simply take the course and forget about it, you will need to refresh your training every five years by attending an SMSTS refresher course.