IOSH, SSSTS and SMSTS courses for Wakefield, Castleford and Pontefract

IOSH courses for Wakefield employers

IOSH courses suit people outside construction as well as in it: warehouse and transport teams, manufacturing, local services and offices. There are two, and they're for different people.

• IOSH Managing Safely (three days) is for managers, supervisors and team leaders who are responsible for other people's safety. It covers assessing and controlling risks, investigating incidents and measuring how well safety is working.
• IOSH Working Safely (one day) is for everyone else on the team: what hazards look like, why they matter and what each person can do about them.

Both are taught live online with a tutor on fixed dates, so a Wakefield delegate joins from home or the office. For a whole shift or department, we can run either course in-house at your premises. Our guide IOSH Managing Safely or Working Safely? helps you choose.

Europort, City Fields and the M62

Much of the district's work sits along the M62. Wakefield Europort, at junction 31 between Wakefield and Castleford, is an estate of warehouses and industrial units with its own rail freight terminal in the middle. On the eastern edge of the city, the Wakefield Eastern Relief Road (A6194) opened in 2017, south of junction 30. It was built to support City Fields, an urban extension planned for around 2,500 homes.

That mix shapes the training people here need. Distribution parks need shift managers and team leaders who can run a safe operation, which is where IOSH fits. Housebuilding and roads need groundworkers, scaffolders and drainage gangs, and supervisors and site managers to run them.

SSSTS and SMSTS courses for Wakefield site teams

The two-day SSSTS is the CITB course for supervisors and foremen. The five-day SMSTS is for site managers, and it's the one principal contractors usually ask the person running the site to hold. Both run in the classroom in Rotherham and live online, with the certificate issued by CITB either way.

Temporary works and NEBOSH courses in Wakefield

On a housing site, temporary works means excavations, trench support, propping and scaffolds. The Temporary Works Coordinator course is for the person who manages that process on site, with a one-day coordinator refresher to keep the certificate current. Our guide to what a temporary works coordinator does explains the role.

For anyone taking on health and safety as a bigger part of their job, the NEBOSH National General Certificate is a common next step after IOSH Managing Safely. It's taught live online with a tutor, so there's no trip down the M1, or you can study it by distance learning at your own pace.

NVQs for Wakefield site managers

The Level 6 NVQ Diploma in Construction Site Management is the usual choice for site managers working towards the Black Manager card. It's assessed on your own site through an online portfolio, typically takes 6 to 8 weeks and is paid in full when you enrol. Use the NVQ checker if you're not sure of the level.

Castleford, Pontefract and the south of the district

This page covers the whole Wakefield district, including Castleford, Pontefract, Featherstone, Knottingley and Normanton, the Five Towns. For IOSH courses in Castleford or Pontefract there's no need to travel: people join the live online dates from home or work, or we run the course at a depot or office with a suitable room. By road, the Rotherham venue is about 40 minutes from Pontefract and about 45 from Castleford, Knottingley or Normanton outside rush hour.

The south of the district is closer. From Hemsworth and South Elmsall the venue is about 30 minutes by road, via the A6195 through the Dearne Valley. Trains on the Leeds to Sheffield route through Rotherham Central call at Moorthorpe, less than a mile from South Elmsall station. For the towns between Wakefield and Rotherham, see our courses for Barnsley and Dearne Valley teams.