Employers must ensure they provide their employees with the training that is necessary in order for their employees to undertake their work safely. This may include training in how to use certain types of tools or equipment, training in company procedures, training in hazard identification and incident reporting and refresher training sessions.

Training can be both informal (on-the-job with instructions and supervision) and formal (at a registered training organisation or similar, such as Master Builders Training Institute). In most circumstances, there is no prescribed training requirements of employees. The training simply needs to be provided, at the right time and to the right extent for the employee to undertake their work safely.

Training can also be thought of in terms of equipping a site manager or similar, with the knowledge, skills and competencies to oversee and manage building sites, whilst having regard for the employers duties and responsibilities, and help the employer meet these. In those cases, Master Builders Victoria recommend employers consider putting their employees through a Certificate III in Work Health and Safety, as a minimum.

Construction induction training (commonly referred to as red/ white card training) is mandatory for anyone who is employed or engaged to perform construction work. Additionally, high risk work licences are required for anyone who performs high risk work, for example the erecting of a scaffold where the fall risk is 4 or more metres. Find out more about construction induction training in the video below.

If you are employing staff, it is your duty to provide the training your employees need to undertake their work safely. But as discussed in topic 1.2, you must also ensure that any contractors on your site have the appropriate training, qualifications and licences. Whenever possible, this check should be done before the work is awarded to the contractor.

If you are the principal contractor of a worksite, it is also your responsibility to provide site specific training. Site specific training most commonly takes the form of a site-specific safety induction.

Master Builders Victoria recommends that builders document the site safety induction provided to each worker who attends the construction site. The site safety induction should be used to record construction induction training (red/ white card training), high risk work licences and other forms of training where appropriate.

If an employee’s mandatory training cannot be verified, Master Builders Victoria recommends that the employee is not permitted to work on site until such time as the training can be verified.

Note, it is an offence to refuse valid construction induction training (red/ white card training).