About the initiative

The evaluation of the Hidden Killer media campaign demonstrated that tradespeople are increasingly aware of the risks of exposure to asbestos. HSE developed this Training Pledge initiative with industry training providers to capitalise on this shift and to promote behaviour change by increasing access to training for those tradespeople who are most at risk as part of the wider Hidden Killer campaign.

The Asbestos Training Pledge initiative invited training providers to pledge and deliver free hours of asbestos awareness training. The original target was to get 4000 hours of free classroom based training pledged and a further 4000 hours of free online courses: 4000 representing the approximate amount of people who die each year from an asbestos-related disease. It soon became clear that the training providers were so keen to help promote the importance of asbestos awareness training, that both of these targets would be exceeded.

The combined pledge total actually reached 7987 classroom hours and 5570 hours of online e-learning. Further online e-learning courses in Polish, Russian and Romanian will continue to be available for free until further notice.

This is an excellent example of HSE working in partnership with industry to facilitate the exchange of free training and HSE has been delighted with the commitment shown by our partners during this initiative.