Health and Safety Training vs Competency: Is Your Training Programme Really Working?

Most organisations can demonstrate that their employees have completed health and safety training. But can they demonstrate that their people are genuinely competent to work safely?

Training is an essential part of protecting people and meeting your legal responsibilities. But completing a course, receiving a certificate or reaching 100% on a training matrix doesn't automatically mean someone is competent.

For organisations managing large or diverse workforces, that distinction matters.

Building competency requires a more considered approach: understanding what people need to know, the skills they need to demonstrate and how that knowledge will be applied in the real world.

So, is it time to look beyond training completion and ask whether your health and safety training programme is really delivering the competency your organisation needs?

Training and competency aren't the same thing

It's easy to use the terms interchangeably, but training and competency are not synonymous.

Training provides people with knowledge and skills. Competency is about whether they can use the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience to carry out their responsibilities effectively and safely.

That means a completed course can be evidence that training has taken place – but it doesn't necessarily tell you whether someone can put that learning into practice.

Consider the questions your organisation could face following an incident.

Was the individual trained?

Was the training appropriate for their role and the risks they faced?

Did they understand it?

Were they able to apply what they'd learned?

How did the organisation determine they were competent?

Those questions take you beyond a training record and into the effectiveness of your wider approach to competency.

Start with what people actually need

A strong training and competency strategy shouldn't begin with a catalogue of courses.

It should begin with your organisation.

What work do your people carry out? What risks are they exposed to? What responsibilities do different roles hold? What knowledge and skills do they need to fulfil those responsibilities safely?

The answers will differ considerably across an organisation.

A senior leader, line manager, maintenance engineer and office-based employee are unlikely to require the same health and safety knowledge. Even employees with similar job titles may face different risks depending on their working environment.

Mapping training requirements against roles, responsibilities and risk can help organisations identify what is genuinely required rather than taking a blanket approach to training.

It can also reveal gaps that may otherwise be hidden within a seemingly comprehensive training matrix.

Think beyond the course

Once training needs have been identified, the next question is how that learning should be delivered.

There's no single answer.

Depending on the subject, audience and organisation, the right solution could involve classroom training, virtual learning, eLearning, blended learning, practical instruction or a bespoke programme developed around specific workplace risks.

For larger organisations, technology and a learning management system (LMS) can also make it easier to deploy training consistently, track completion and maintain visibility across teams and locations.

But the method of delivery is only part of the picture.

The real objective is to make sure learning translates into safer behaviour and better decision-making at work.

That means organisations also need to consider what happens after the training.

Make competency part of an ongoing process

Competency isn't something that can simply be achieved once and filed away.

Roles change. People take on new responsibilities. Processes and equipment evolve. Legislation and guidance develop. Skills that aren't regularly used can fade.

An effective programme therefore needs to be reviewed and maintained.

That could include refresher training, supervision, practical assessment, observation, performance conversations or additional support where a gap has been identified.

Managers have an important part to play too. Giving them the knowledge and confidence to recognise competency gaps can help make health and safety part of everyday management rather than something owned solely by the health and safety team.

This is where a structured approach becomes particularly valuable.

Instead of asking, "Has everyone completed their training?", organisations can start asking:

"Do our people have the knowledge, skills and support they need to carry out their roles safely?"

It's a small change in language, but a significant change in thinking.

How do you deploy that approach across a large organisation?

Knowing what good looks like is one thing.

Putting it into practice across hundreds or thousands of employees, multiple roles, departments or locations is another.

You need to establish training needs, decide how learning will be delivered, gain support from managers, communicate expectations, maintain accurate records and make sure the programme remains manageable as the organisation changes.

It's one of the reasons a clear health and safety training strategy matters.

Rather than individual courses being commissioned reactively, organisations can create a framework that connects training to roles, risks and competency requirements.

And that's the focus of our next Health & Safety Leadership webinar.

Join our H&S Training Masterclass

H&S Training Masterclass: How to Build Competency and Deploy a Training Programme That Works

Thursday 17th September 2026 | 12:00pm–12:45pm (BST) | CPD Certified

In this practical 45-minute webinar, Andrew Regel, Technical Lead for Training at Ligtas, will explore the legal responsibilities surrounding workplace training, the difference between training and competency, and why organisations need to look beyond simply recording course attendance.

He'll be joined by Amy Jones, Guest Speaker, who will draw on more than 20 years' experience in the highly regulated asbestos industry to share practical lessons from developing and deploying training and competency strategies across large workforces.

We'll finish with a live Q&A featuring Andrew and Anthony Bruce, Head of Health, Safety and Training Services at Ligtas and former HSE Enforcement Officer.

During the session, you'll learn how to:

• Understand the difference between training and competency
• Meet your legal responsibilities for workplace training
• Identify training needs across different roles
• Build a practical training and competency strategy
• Successfully roll out a programme across your organisation

All attendees will receive practical resources to support their own training and competency planning, and those attending more than 90% of the webinar will receive a CPD certificate.