& 
DSE Workstation Assessment eLearning
A practical course for the person who has to carry out DSE workstation assessments — how to run one, what to look for, and how to record it so it stands up.
Who it is for
Who this course is for
This is the assessor-level course. If you just need staff to understand their own workstation, the Display Screen Equipment (DSE) course is the one you want.
- Managers and supervisors who sign off workstation assessments
- Health and safety officers and competent persons
- HR and facilities staff handling workstation requests
- Office managers responsible for a floor or a site
- DSE assessors covering hybrid and home workers
- Anyone taking on the assessor role for the first time
Course content
What the course covers
Eight short modules that take you from the legal duty through to a completed, defensible assessment record.
What a DSE assessment is for
The difference between awareness training and an assessment, and what the assessment is actually meant to achieve.
Who counts as a user
How to decide who is a DSE user or operator, and why that decision drives everything that follows.
The workstation, part by part
Display screen, keyboard, mouse, desk, chair, footrest, document holder — what good looks like for each.
The working environment
Space, lighting, glare and reflections, noise, temperature and humidity around the workstation.
Posture and the person
Seating height, screen height and distance, reach, and the adjustments that fix the most common problems.
Running the assessment
How to work through a checklist with the user, what to ask, and how to spot what they have stopped noticing.
Homeworkers and hot-desking
Assessing a setup you cannot see, and what changes when nobody has a fixed desk.
Recording, acting and reviewing
Writing the record, prioritising the actions, closing them out, and knowing when the assessment has to be reviewed.
Outcomes
What you will be able to do
- Decide correctly who in your organisation is a DSE user
- Carry out a workstation assessment from start to finish
- Identify the risks at a workstation and rank them sensibly
- Recommend adjustments that people will actually keep to
- Assess a home or hot-desk setup remotely
- Write a record that shows what was found and what was done
- Know when an assessment has to be reviewed
Your legal duty
The law behind this training
Regulation 2(1) of the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 requires every employer to perform a suitable and sufficient analysis of workstations used by DSE users and operators, for the purpose of assessing the health and safety risks they are exposed to.
Regulation 2(2) requires the assessment to be reviewed if there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid, or if there has been a significant change in what it relates to. Regulation 2(3) requires the employer to reduce the risks identified to the lowest extent reasonably practicable.
The Regulations do not say who must carry the assessment out, only that it must be suitable and sufficient. In practice that means the person doing it needs to know what they are looking at — which is what this course is for.
- Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992
- Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 — competent assistance
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2
Practicalities
How the course works
For employers
Buying for a team
Most organisations need one or two trained assessors rather than the whole floor. We can set that up and keep the records in one place.
- Buy licences in bulk and allocate them as people join
- One dashboard showing who has completed and who has not
- Invoicing on account rather than card payment
- Reminders before certificates expire
- Mix this with the DSE awareness course for the wider team
Need the whole team to understand their own workstation instead? See the DSE awareness course →
DSE Workstation Assessment eLearning — common questions
The DSE course teaches a person to set up and understand their own workstation. This one teaches you to assess someone else’s and record it. Most organisations need both, for different people.
It gives you the knowledge the role needs. Competence under the Management Regulations also comes from experience and from knowing your own workplace, so treat this as the training part of it.
Yes, and the course covers how. You are assessing a setup you cannot walk up to, so the method changes even though the duty does not.
About 40 minutes. You can stop part way through and pick it up where you left off.
We recommend refreshing every three years, or sooner if your workstations or the way people work change significantly.
The course walks through what a workstation assessment record needs to contain so you can use your own form, or build one.
Yes — talk to our team and we will set up licences, invoicing and a completion report for the group.