What Jobs Require Confined Space And Height Safety Training?

There are multiple training courses available for a variety of high risk jobs including confined space training and height safety training. To understand when someone would need such training comes down to the jobs they work in, which is sometimes difficult to break down. If you struggle to define what’s involved in confined space rescue or working at heights, we’ve covered the specifics for both and why special training is required to carry out such work.

Confined Spaces

Confined spaces are defined as any spaces which are enclosed which makes the likelihood of accidents higher. Confined spaces typically fall into chambers, tanks, vessels or anything similar, which is why people working in such conditions are at higher risk of injury. Specialty training is an absolute must for confined space rescue, especially if the space is substantially closed off, has a number of hazards and potential injury is high.

As the situations of confined spaces can be fairly broad, it’s difficult to define them into set job terms. Instead, it’s more straightforward to look at the potential risks that’s associated with confined space rescue. Some of the risks include spaces that have a toxic atmosphere, a lack of oxygen, the presence of flammables or spaces that have excessive heat. With these risks in mind, helps to identify the sort of situations confined space training is required. There are many safeguarding laws which ensure no person is placed in such situations without assessment, the right training and only if it’s necessary.

As already mentioned, it’s difficult to define confined spaces into particular jobs. And so, based on the potential risks involved, there are key elements to ensure safety in this line of work. Some of the considerations safety teams draw up include: ensuring the right person with the right confined space training is available, the use of protective equipment, permit-to-work procedure, tests, enough communication and monitoring of the ventilation and dangerous gases.

Height safety

On the contrary, height safety jobs are a bit easier to define. If you want to work at height, and this is outlined if you’re working above ground level, have the potential to fall off an edge or could fall from ground level through a crack below, height safety training is required. To work at height, there’s technically no legal requirements to do so, however you must fall under a certain level of competency. To gain a level of competence that makes you eligible for working at height, you need to undergo height safety training to prove you have understanding of the measures in place through certification. Additionally, there are different levels of training for height safety, depending on the risks involved with certain job situations. So, with job criteria in mind, people may require low risk, medium risk or high risk training. Typically, the course informs you how to use safety equipment appropriately, however sometimes additional training is needed if a job has more complexity.

It’s vital organisations and companies employ people with the right certifications to deal with working at height, otherwise it can mean complications with health and safety laws. Again, with height safety jobs, there’s no definitive answer for what jobs fall under working at height other than the factors above.

If you are wanting to begin a new career in industry based job placements, it’s important you know if you’ll require the above training. Usually, jobs will outline if you need certain training certifications, so it’s vital to ensure you have done enough research on the position. However, if you do need more information on what’s involved in working in confined spaces and at heights, training courses are available which outline everything you need to know.