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ESC Technical Safety Training Summary

On this latest blog, we bring ESC technical safety training summary where we reflect on the technical safety training program during 2020, what happened, what we learned, and what is happening in 2021.
ESC Technical Safety Training Summary
The ESC training program for 2020 was set as an ambitious extension to the successful year in 2019.
The courses were planned in 7 countries across Europe and West Indies including the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Republic of Ireland.
But the schedule was interrupted just before the first planned session in March 2020.
All of a sudden the prospect of running any training halted. The world pandemic placed countries on travel bans and eventually lockdown for our tutors here in the UK.
The participants that had already booked on the courses were very amenable to allowing us to sort the situation out.
While some opted to wait for face-to-face training to return the majority were happy to attend the virtual classes.
So what happened?
It took a few weeks of set-up and liaison with the course accrediting bodies but we managed to transfer to online learning with tutor-led sessions and the latest online software services.
At the same time, the training team launched our first-ever webinar series, running webinars in the morning and afternoon UK time to facilitate the attendance of our global customers.
We reached more than 30 countries from North America to Australia. We spread the topics across many areas of Functional Safety, Process Hazard Analysis, Machinery Safety, and Cyber Security.
The webinar series videos are all available on our website, just follow the link ESC’s 2020 Functional Safety Webinar Series Videos.
Once we had resolved the accreditation approvals we began to run the courses online. A method that was accepted by most with great reviews.
In summary, we successfully delivered 17 courses with attendees from the UK, The Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, and the USA. The courses ranged from ESC’s introductory courses to the TÜV Rheinland FS Engineer (SIS) course.
The examinations for the FS Engineer course were initially conducted face-to-face under COVID restrictions and when the second lockdown happened we had an agreement for online examinations which included video-recorded proctoring with the supervision of one of our TÜV Experts.
What have we learnt?
Online training isn’t for everyone but is (and has been) effective for many people.
The interaction between participants is slightly different, but with the correct preparation and course follow-up on any queries, the courses can allow the knowledge to be effectively achieved.
The success rate for the TÜV Rheinland FS Engineer (SIS) course has remained unchanged between the ‘normal’ face-to-face delivery and the online delivery.
Obviously, we were concerned about the situation for learning with children at home when schools were closed, different time zones for people, not so easy access to ‘draw on the whiteboard’ to expand on things that don’t make sense, and losing those clarifications over a cup of tea/coffee.
How about ESC Technical Safety Training 2021
Online learning has continued in the first quarter of 2021. We had hoped that we would have a hybrid system up and running by now with some face-to-face courses alongside online learning.
Unfortunately, the April courses have been postponed as venues can’t yet fully host the courses due to government restrictions.
The virtual classroom has been on-going with 4 courses already completed in January and February, virtually visiting UK, Germany, Malaysia, and Russia.
We have some mid-year reviews to happen for the second half of the year, but we believe that online is here to stay (maybe not for all courses) and we keep watching the space for how things adapt over 2021.
For our full list of courses visit our training page.