Most people picture asbestos as a problem for demolition crews. In reality, the bigger risk is someone drilling, sanding or lifting a floor without knowing what is behind it. If your team works on buildings built or refurbished before the year 2000, they can meet asbestos on an ordinary day. Awareness is what stops an ordinary job becoming a health risk.
What asbestos awareness training actually is
Asbestos awareness training teaches people to recognise where asbestos might be, understand why it is dangerous, and know what to do if they find or disturb it. It is not a licence to remove asbestos. It does not qualify anyone to survey a building. Its whole purpose is prevention: helping staff avoid disturbing materials that are safe when left alone but harmful once they are damaged and fibres are released into the air.
Training is delivered by accredited providers, not by us. SEAS is a surveying and removal business, so our role is different, and we come back to that below.
Who needs it
Awareness training is aimed at anyone whose work could disturb asbestos. That includes maintenance staff, electricians, plumbers, joiners, decorators, heating engineers, cleaners in older buildings and general handypeople. It also matters for the people who manage those workers: property managers, facilities managers and landlords who send contractors into their buildings.
If you are a duty-holder for a commercial or non-domestic property, awareness sits alongside your wider responsibility to know where asbestos is and to keep that information up to date. Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, employers have a duty to provide adequate information, instruction and training to employees who are, or may be, exposed to asbestos at work.
Awareness training is not the same as a survey
This is the part that trips people up. Awareness training teaches your team to be careful. It does not tell them where the asbestos actually is. Only a survey does that.
An asbestos survey identifies the materials in your building, records their location and condition, and gives you a register you can act on. Trained staff plus a clear survey is the combination that works: your people know what to look out for, and the survey tells them exactly where to look and what to leave alone. One without the other leaves a gap. Awareness on its own still guesses. A survey on its own sits in a drawer if nobody understands it.
Where training comes from, and where SEAS fits
Accredited awareness courses are widely available, both online and in person, from recognised training providers. We would suggest checking that any course is UKATA or IATP recognised.
SEAS does not deliver training. What we do is the survey work that makes training useful: management surveys, refurbishment and demolition surveys, and, where asbestos needs to come out, licensed removal. If your team has done awareness training but you have never had the building surveyed, that is the missing piece.
FAQ
Does asbestos awareness training let my staff remove asbestos?
No. Awareness training is about recognising and avoiding asbestos, not removing it. Removal is separate, specialist work.
Who in my business needs awareness training?
Anyone whose work could disturb asbestos, and the managers who send them into older buildings. If in doubt, assume the people doing hands-on work in pre-2000 properties need it.
Is awareness training a legal requirement?
There is a legal duty on employers to inform, instruct and train employees who may be exposed to asbestos.
Book a survey
Training helps your team stay alert. A survey tells them exactly where the asbestos is. If your building has never been surveyed, or your records are out of date, that is where to start. Call SE Asbestos Surveys on 07872 054963 to book a survey or request a free no-obligation quote.
