We ARE delivering face to face radiation protection safety training
Published: Nov 19, 2022
A short blog article outlining how Ionactive is delivering radiation safety training. This blog article has been written due a few emails we have received regarding such matters.
This was then
It is perhaps easier to start with what we are not delivering at present. Since the pandemic starting in March 2020, with lock downs that followed, we have not offered public RPS training courses at our training venue at Missenden Abbey (Buckinghamshire). ‘Public courses’ means training that we deliver at our training venue to delegates from all over the UK and beyond. It is the venue where we have delivered our Radiation Protection Supervisor (RPS) course for around 15 years.
In the early days of the pandemic we were not allowed to deliver courses this way (hospitality was shut down), and then when some of the restrictions were lifted we felt the training environment was not ideal (masks, restriction on delegate numbers, restrictions on how food and refreshments could be served and so on). At the same time we developed our online training system (more of that shortly) – but suffice to say, it is the success of the online system that has made running our public RPS courses unviable at this time. 90% of all delegate enquiries each month want to train using online system, and so not enough delegates are available to run a 2 day public training course the way we used to. Perhaps this will change in the future, however I do think the world has moved on in an unexpected way and some things will just not be the same again. If the number are right in the future, we will certainly run public RPS training courses at our training venue again.
And this is now
So that was what we are not doing presently, now on to what we are offering!
It just so happens that in the last 18 months or so we have run more onsite bespoke radiation safety courses for clients all around the UK than ever before. We have run courses at the radiation awareness and radiation protection supervisor level for the medical sector, PET, aviation, industrial sterilisation and more besides.
Certain things have changed for sure – and perhaps the most significant is that we are no longer handing out huge training binders, so avoiding the use of paper and toner. We have gone green. Yes, there is a potential cost saving here, but using our online training platform adds significant value. The delegate gets the best of both worlds since they are trained face to face (and therefore there is lots of interaction between each other), but have all their training material and resources in one place online. Each delegate therefore receives an online training account where they can view the resource from any device at any time (where an internet connection is present). Unlike printed documents, the delegate automatically receives updates and enhancements from time to time.
In addition to live face to face training, and as already mentioned above, the online 24/7 on demand Radiation Protection Supervisor (RPS) could remains our flagship training product at this time.
Example
Example – we had an order for 20 online RPS training places from a well known nuclear industry contractor. We asked for feedback following all delegates completing the course – the feedback was well received! We asked the contractor why they chose the Ionactive online training course over other potential training courses. The contractor responding by explaining that in previous years they had needed to host several courses at hotels, bringing in delegates from all around the UK and overseas. Despite the obvious networking advantage, the logistics were onerous. The contractor felt that the Ionactive training solution met their business needs, allowing their delegates to stay in post and take the course when convenient, built around their day job. This solution is not for everyone – we are aware of this and this is why we are growing our onsite bespoke training service. But for those that require optimum training flexibility, the Ionactive online RPS training course is one way to go for sure.