Develop Training is claiming an ‘industry first’ with the launch of a ‘blended’ training course for workers who handle high voltage electrical systems.
The course, ‘Authorised Person: High Voltage (AP15b)’, is the result of careful research with clients following ‘unforeseen changes’ to course delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Develop Training had transferred a number of its courses to ‘virtual’, online delivery, but has now created a range of ‘blended’ programmes, comprising a combination of online and in-person learning, as alternatives to its ‘traditional’ versions of the courses.
The first of these, the AP15b Authorised Person: High Voltage (Blended) training course, has recently been piloted at Develop’s Swindon training centre. Viktors Nikolajevs, Estates & FM Training manager, said: “It’s been a huge success. The pandemic was no doubt the catalyst for these blended programmes, but the model has certainly won praise from both our clients, and learners themselves.”
Instead of attending the course over five consecutive days at a Develop training centre, learners now have up to two months to complete a number of online modules – in their own time – before attending the training centre for just three days. Individual modules are also reduced to a maximum of 30 minutes of online attendance, rather than up to three hours at a training centre.
Ian Yates, Electrical Safety manager for Welsh Water, part of the first cohort on the pilot course, said there was a lot of technical information to absorb on the online theory section, so having more time to complete it was ‘hugely beneficial, as long as participants took advantage of the availability of course tutors online’. He added: “It's important that learners schedule the time into their work diaries, then use the opportunities available to contact tutors – and they also may be able to ask someone in their own organisation if they begin to struggle with any element. The blended course was a great learning experience. I'd definitely recommend it.”
