fall protection instructor training

1. You don’t. Well. almost. Aside from the initial set of licenses as part of the instructor training program, there is no obligation to purchase any more. 2. But… if you do, this program is built around delivering our proprietary Fall Protection User course. As such, we must ensure the quality and consistency of training materials. License sales also help us fund improvement of the existing course. For what it’s worth, we have invested well over 500 hours into developing this program, AND we use our regular instruction of the Fall Protection User course as our learning laboratory. This means our course evolves from year to year to keep up with:

• OHS Regulatory changes and incident statistics
• CSA Standards changes
• Best practices for learning activities
• Ways to improve the learner experience

We currently have a budget of another 100 hours + $20,000 to further improve this specific course over the next 12 months. Authorized instructors get access to these improvements without having to spend a single minute of their own time on development.

You can, however, are also required to get these as part of the instructor program.

Here’s why:

1. Increased instructor confidence. An instructor may feel better prepared upon leaving the program if they have 100% of the materials required to teach.
2. Increases legitimacy of the course. Some courses do not provide ANY resources to the instructor. These courses don’t have the same level of respect in the industry, and students are often caught off guard once they realize that designing a training course involves a very different set of skills than delivering a course.
3. Increase preparedness. Having the licenses on-hand allows the instructor to start teaching as soon as the very next day. We know from experience that it’s best to teach as soon as possible after being trained to quickly improve competency and confidence.

Each license contains:

• A unique serial number for the student and that number is connected to the instructor
• A Fall Protection User Student Manual
• A temporary certificate
• A final exam booklet
• A course evaluation form

The following comprise the MINIMAL equipment required.

•   Anchor x 4 different types
•   Harness x 6. At least one harness from each classification group (AD, AE, AL, AP)
•   Suspension Trauma Strap x 1
•   Fall Arrester x 1
•   Life Safety Rope x 1
•   Carabiner x 1 x 1
•   Self-Retracing Lifeline x 1
•   Confined Space Entry Tripod x 1 (for harness suspension activity)
•   Damaged Fall protection Equipment x 6 (at least 1 anchor, 1 harness, 1 lanyard)
•   Access to current CSA Z259 Fall Protection Standards (available for free at https://community.csagroup.org/login.jspa?referer=%252Fwelcome)

Lanyards

•   Web Lanyard
•   Twin leg lanyard
•   Rope lanyard
•   Non-shock absorbing lanyard

Instructional Equipment

•   Projector / LED TV
•   Computer
•   Cables

You can.

The certification issued by Haland Learning supports your delivery of this program. If you carried on teaching using 100% of your own material afterward, it would have no connection to Haland Learning Inc.

That being said, there is no prescriptive requirement (in the BC OHS Regulation, the Workers Compensation Act, or the CSA Standards) stating that ANY fall protection instructor training is required to teach this information to others. If a provider tries to convince you otherwise, they’re ignorant or lying. Neither is good.

If you choose to deliver your own program, we won’t try to stop you. Consider that you’d have to develop your own training materials, your training may not be recognized by the industry, and that if something went wrong you would have to defend your actions in court.

It comes down to Risk Perception vs. Risk Tolerance.

Our Fall Protection User course is accredited as an NCSO Approved course. All our instructors delivering our training are now automatically approved as well. No effort was expended from our instructors in order for them to be recognized. Getting accredited was no small task.

The average cost to get Fall Protection training:

• First 30 people: 3rd party, $200/person and in-house trainer is $160/person
• Next 30 people: 3rd party, $200/person and in-house trainer is $80/person

Assumptions:

• The in-house trainer’s daily cost to the employer is $200.
• Five people per training session.

Notes

• The licenses are $40 each, however, you have to consider the in-house trainers’ time and expense as well. This is why we’re showing a per person cost of $80. The other $40 is for the trainers’ time.
• If you are training 30 People through a Third-Party, it would cost $6,375. If training the same number of people in-house, it would cost $3,500 – $6,000 ($2,500 Instructor Program + $2,500 Fall Protection Equipment + $1,000 in-house trainers’ time).

Safety Direct Ltd. (a Canadian Fall Protection Equipment Manufacturer) has very kindly offered to provide new instructors with a healthy discount when making an initial purchase for fall protection training equipment.

The cost for all the equipment listed is $2,500 + GST.

There are a few other organizations offering a Fall Protection Instructor program. Of course, you should do your diligence and assess all options before making an informed decision.

Some things to ask the other providers (we’ll answer each question to give you a comparison)

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How much time in the course is dedicated to giving instructor candidates time to instruct?

Each instructor will get 2 hours of actual teaching time in our program.

Not 0 minutes, not 5 or 15 minutes. 2 hours, at least. We ladder their skillset after each lesson plan delivery and provide real-life tools for instructors to improve their abilities. The final lesson plan delivery is virtually unrecognizable from the first because of this conscious skill development.

Each candidate is treated in accordance with their abilities. An experienced trainer would get much different feedback than a new candidate. In both cases, they learn useful tools.

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Are there annual fees required in order to maintain permission to use the program?
No. There is a $0 annual cost for the organization or the instructor. The only costs are student licenses.

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How often is the material refined and improved?

Our course undergoes draft improvements on a weekly basis. These improvements culminate in a next version that generally gets published annually. We launched V3.2 in November 2020. V3.3 should be out by November 2021 (which works out well for timing, because WorkSafeBC issues their annual statistics report in October, and we update our course each year with this information).

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Do phone and email messages get promptly answered?
We do. We are a small business. If we don’t answer the phone, our family doesn’t eat.

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Are you made to feel like your business is valued?
We do. You and your company are not a number. We are dedicated to your success and look forward to working with you.

Many safety courses are dry, not relevant, and boring. Really boring. If it’s not the course material, it’s the instructor. Some agencies believe they can talk AT you for hours and that you’ll somehow learn all the stuff.

We know from 20+ years of experience + current adult instructional knowledge this approach is woefully inadequate.

Every topic in the class is there for a reason. Each topic will have some type of activity the participants DO/INTERACT WITH in order to develop or confirm learning.

In summary… our courses are NOT boring. While it won’t be like going to Disneyland, participants will find themselves being engaged throughout the day, and they WILL learn something.

Yes. Well… maybe.

There aren’t many formal authorities to ‘recognize’ or ‘approve’ fall protection training throughout Canada. Our training easily complies with provincial, territorial and federal requirements. However, there are 3 provinces you need to know about before moving forward… Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland.

1 . If you’re in Alberta and require training to be ESC (previously OSSA). Our training is not ESC approved. The only source of ESC approved training is ESC. Our training will certainly work for Alberta, it just won’t be ESC approved.

2. If you’re in Ontario or Newfoundland. Both Provinces require formal provincial approval. The Ontario program is known as Working at Heights. It’s a one day program (similar to our), and the Newfoundland program is a 2-day course… twice as long as ours.

We expect to have our program approved by Ontario before Spring 2024, however do not have plans to apply for approval by Newfoundland.

Summary:

Fall protection requirements are quite similar across Canada (this includes the Canada Labour Code, Maritime OHS Regulations and Mine Safety Acts). We can cover your specific local requirements during instructor training.

Training is either live online, or in person. We often run both at the same time.

When run via live online, we teach the class as normal. Each remotely-attending instructor gets a 360o view of the training room, and we have cameras in other portions of the training centre whenever needed. There is a great microphone to capture all of the in person peoples voices, and the remotely attending instructor is immersed in the course.

They even get their own monitor. So each instructor is basically ‘a person’ in the real life training room.

It may sound odd, but it works amazingly well.

The instructor candidate receives all equipment & materials before the course and uses them during training.

Yes, however they would need further training before doing so.

Teaching online is a different skillset. If possible, we could integrate this training into the existing schedule.

1 to 10 days. Depending on the quantity ordered and the shipping location. It’s recommended to always have at least one class worth on-hand for those unplanned sessions.

Yes, you can order any quantity you want. There are no minimums either. You can get 1 or 500.

Maybe in the future.

As it stands, we charge for licenses when they’re ordered.

If there’s a long standing relationship and the client can show a reliable habit of ontime payment, we can look at payment terms.