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Managing Contractors eLearning
Online contractor management training: selecting competent contractors, agreeing who controls what, and supervising work you are still legally responsible for.
Who it is for
Who this managing contractors course is for
Bringing in a contractor does not transfer your duties to them. Section 3 of the 1974 Act makes you responsible for people affected by your undertaking, and shared workplaces create overlapping duties nobody has read.
- Facilities, estates and site managers
- Procurement and purchasing teams
- Project managers engaging contractors
- Small business owners bringing in trades
- Health and safety representatives
- Anyone signing off contractor work
Course content
What the managing contractors course covers
Six short modules covering the whole contractor relationship, from selection to review, with the focus on the co-ordination that usually fails.
Why contractor management matters
Shared duties, and why engaging a contractor does not transfer your responsibilities.
Selecting a competent contractor
What to ask for, what the answers should look like, and what a certificate does not prove.
Planning the work
Scope, method statements, risk assessments and agreeing who controls what.
Induction and information
Telling contractors about your risks, and getting told about theirs.
Supervision and co-ordination
Monitoring work in progress, and managing overlapping activities on a shared site.
Review and records
Checking work on completion, recording performance and feeding it into the next selection.
Outcomes
What you will be able to do afterwards
- Explain why duties are shared rather than transferred
- Assess a contractor's competence before engagement
- Agree who controls what before work starts
- Give and receive the information a shared workplace requires
- Supervise contractor work proportionately
- Record contractor performance for future selection
Your legal duty
The law behind managing contractors training
Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to conduct their undertaking so that people not in their employment are not exposed to risks to health or safety. That is the section that makes contractor management your problem as well as the contractor's.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 add the duty to co-operate and co-ordinate where two or more employers share a workplace, and to provide information about risks. On construction projects, CDM 2015 sets out the roles more formally.
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 - section 3
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 - co-operation and co-ordination
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 - on construction projects
- Duties are shared between client and contractor, not transferred.
Practicalities
How the course works
For employers
Managing Contractors training for a team
Contractor management sits across procurement, facilities and site teams, so training them together is what stops responsibility falling between them.
- One invoice instead of a card payment per person
- Licences allocated as people join, so induction is covered.
- Completion and expiry reporting for your records
- Renewal reminders before certificates lapse
- Bespoke versions built around your own procedures
Construction projects add formal duty holder roles under CDM 2015. See the CDM Awareness course →
Managing Contractors eLearning: common questions
Both of you are. Section 3 of the 1974 Act makes you responsible for people affected by your undertaking, and shared workplaces bring duties to co-operate and co-ordinate.
Evidence of competence proportionate to the risk: method statements, risk assessments, relevant training and insurance. The course covers what those documents should actually show.
Not on its own. The course is direct about this: a certificate shows someone attended something. Competence is knowledge, skill, experience and behaviour together.
If it is construction work, yes. CDM 2015 applies to all construction projects and sets out formal duty holder roles. The CDM course covers that.
About 30 minutes, with no time limit. Start it, pause it, and come back whenever suits. The certificate is issued the moment you finish.
Yes. It runs in a browser on any modern phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install.
Yes. Open a business account and we invoice you for the licences, which you allocate as people need them. Completion reporting included.
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