International Safety Training

Things have taken an interesting turn in the last few weeks. Talking with a number of customers they have expressed a need for help with developing and delivering health and safety training to their international and diverse workforces.

“What can be so difficult?” the customer asks.

Having developed international training schools for multi national delegates before, I am aware of the amount of development and preparation time needed to successfully pull this off!

Technical content aside, adequately catering for different cultures, language skills, travel arrangements and general level of comfort for delegates who are away from home and outside of their normal country environment should not be under estimated if you wish to maximise the learning opportunity. Indeed, having spoken with colleagues and contacts who have undertaken such exercises in the past only confirms my own experiences.

One of our customers wishes to develop and roll out training in the Asia Pacific region. As an example of how different cultures may impact upon training I remind myself of the following example:

• Any questions?
  In the UK, if you were explaining something or asking somebody to do something, you would expect that person to ask a question if there was something they didn’t understand. Certainly, you would expect them to respond if you asked if they had any questions. This is not always the case. Some people you encounter may even think it rude to ask a question. Therefore, you may find that a lack of questions does not necessarily mean that something has been understood.

The trick is to be fully prepared but be flexible enough to cater for the unexpected!