Course Genie
Construction

Asbestos Awareness

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Pick a date that suits your team

Asbestos Awareness is run on demand — tell us when you'd like to attend and where, and we'll arrange a date and venue that works for you. Single delegates and group bookings both welcome.

UK-wide venues + online Group discounts available

Overview

Asbestos remains the biggest occupational killer in the UK, and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 require every employer whose workers could disturb asbestos to provide awareness training. That net is wide: any building constructed or refurbished before the year 2000 may contain asbestos, so the trades that drill, cut, chase and lift, from electricians and plumbers to joiners, decorators and general builders, all fall within the duty.

This is Category A awareness training: it teaches you to recognise the risk and avoid disturbing asbestos, not to work with it. The course covers what asbestos is and why it kills, the products and places where it hides, from insulation boards and pipe lagging to textured coatings and floor tiles, what to do if you think you have found or disturbed it, and how the duty to manage asbestos in buildings works in practice. Delivered by an IATP-recognised provider, typically as a half-day course, classroom or online.

Awareness training is not a licence to work on asbestos: anything beyond avoiding it needs non-licensed or licensed work training. Architects and designers have their own version of the course, Asbestos Awareness for Architects and Designers, focused on design-stage duties. Asbestos also features in the wider site safety syllabus on SMSTS and CITB Health and Safety Awareness. Browse related courses under health and safety training.

Who this course is for

  • Electricians, plumbers and heating engineers working in pre-2000 buildings
  • Joiners, decorators, plasterers and general builders
  • Demolition and refurbishment operatives
  • Maintenance and facilities staff in older building stock
  • Site managers and supervisors responsible for refurbishment work
  • Anyone whose work could disturb the fabric of a pre-2000 building

Requirements

  • No formal entry requirements
  • A reasonable level of spoken and written English
  • For online delivery, a reliable connection and a quiet space

What you'll achieve

  • A certificate of asbestos awareness training meeting CAR 2012 requirements
  • The ability to recognise common asbestos-containing materials
  • Clear rules for what to do on discovering or disturbing suspect materials
  • Understanding of the health effects and why exposure has no safe level
  • Evidence of training for site inductions and contractor approvals
  • Awareness of when work needs non-licensed or licensed asbestos training instead

Syllabus

What asbestos is
Fibre types, why they kill, and the diseases they cause.
Where it hides
Common asbestos-containing materials in pre-2000 buildings.
The law
Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and the duty to manage.
Avoiding disturbance
Checking registers and plans before work starts.
Emergency procedures
What to do if materials are disturbed or discovered.
Limits of awareness training
When work needs non-licensed or licensed training.

Asbestos Awareness FAQs

Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, every employer must provide awareness training for workers who could foreseeably disturb asbestos. In practice that covers most construction and maintenance trades working in buildings built before 2000.
No. Awareness training teaches you to recognise and avoid asbestos. Working on asbestos-containing materials requires non-licensed work training, and higher-risk work requires a licensed contractor.
The regulations require training to be repeated as necessary to keep knowledge current, and the accepted industry norm is an annual refresher. Many principal contractors require awareness training dated within the last 12 months.
Yes. Awareness-level training can be delivered online or in the classroom. Classroom and in-company sessions work well for whole teams, and online suits individuals filling a gap before a site start.
Any building constructed or refurbished before 2000 may contain asbestos: it was used in insulation, boards, ceiling and floor tiles, textured coatings, cement products and gaskets. The building's asbestos register should always be checked before work.
Yes, delivery is by an IATP-recognised training provider, which main contractors accept as evidence that the training meets the standard.
Prices for asbestos awareness training vary by location, group size and whether you book a public date or an in-company course. Where live dates are shown at the top of this page, the price against each date is the full cost of a place. Otherwise send an enquiry from this page and we will come back within one working day with options and pricing.
Yes. Asbestos awareness works well delivered to a whole team at once, on site or at a venue near you, and in-company delivery is often the cheapest way to train several people. Request a quote through our <a href="/for-employers/">employer booking page</a>, with purchase order support included.
The course runs on demand as well as on any public dates shown at the top of this page. Send an enquiry with your preferred timing and location and we will confirm available options within one working day.

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