The SSSTS Course - An Essential for Site Supervisors

SSSTS is one of a number of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) courses, which is run by a network of approved training providers. There is a group of courses often referred to as the Cskills courses (construction skills courses) and sometimes referred to as Site Safety Plus courses.

This group of courses includes the SMSTS course, which is a five day course aimed at site managers, as well as PMSTS aimed at Plant Managers and SSSTS which is the course for site supervisors.

All Site Safety Plus certificates has a validity period of 5 years but unlike the SMSTS certificate, which is valid for a period of five years after, which a shorter refresher course needs to be attended, the two day SSSTS course needs to be re-attended every 5 years.

There is often confusion as to which course is appropriate to the individual, but unless a client is specifically stating a requirement for an SMSTS or PMSTS certificate the SSSTS certificate should be appropriate for all staff involved in supervisory work. The exception to this might be where senior supervisors are planning to become involved in site management or plant management, in which case they might sit one of the other two courses. The SSSTS course is designed for team leaders, foremen, gangers, first line managers and others involved in supervisory activities.

The SSSTS course explains the responsibilities of supervisors and ensures that they have an understanding of their legal duties in health and safety law. On successful completion of the course supervisors should be in a better position to instruct others and supervise and monitor safety on site. The SSSTS course is a really good foundation courses for attaining this knowledge.

Delivery of the SSSTS course is throughout the UK, either in an open course format open to the general public or as dedicated courses on customers’ own sites or chosen venues. To run a dedicated course is will be necessary to have a number of supervisors needing to sit the course to make the course delivery economic.

The SSSTS course is a highly interactive course and candidates will be assessed by multiple choice question format at the end of the course.

The content of the SSSTS course includes, an introduction to health and safety, welfare and environmental issues associated with work on construction sites; an understanding of the occupational health problems associated with construction work and expectations of site supervisors, the structure of health and safety law and how this affects supervisory positions. The course also covers risk assessments and use of method statements, including a basic understanding of fire risks, COSHH and CDM (Construction Design Management regulations), working at height, PPE, manual handling, accidents and first aid. In addition the scope of training covers site induction issue, toolbox talks and method statement briefings, as well as an understanding and appreciation of the need for proactive and reactive monitoring.

It is also relevant to note that grants exist for SSSTS courses and these are open to CITB Levy Payers.