Designing your own training course
You may feel that it is more appropriate or convenient to run training yourself, to meet the needs of your staff and volunteers.
If you are dealing with issues such as food safety or manual handling, it is important to ensure that your training is in line with recognised good practice. For example, you can:
- Get advice on food safety and food handling issues from your local environmental health officer (contactable via your local council). Tips on food safety are available from the Food Standards Agency at: http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/keepingfoodsafe/
- Find useful materials on worker safety when moving heavy objects on the Health & Safety Executive website, for example: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg143.pdf
- See nutritional guidelines on the Food Standards Agency website at: http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/
- Read information about sustainable food on the Sustain website at: http://www.sustainweb.org/sustainablefood/
It is also important to consider consulting your staff and volunteers about their existing knowledge, experience and needs. Training should be designed with clear aims, and with agreement on what themes you and your colleagues wish to cover. You might do this informally in discussions, or via a training application form.
Training sessions are more likely to be popular and effective if they are interactive and fun – including games, discussions and demonstrations as well as more formal presentations.
