Beyond the Screen: The Importance of In-Person Training
Over the past few years, especially since the COVID pandemic, the rise in organisations choosing to train their staff online, rather than face-to-face, has been vast. From restaurants training their staff on health and safety, to banks training their staff to meet compliance requirements. Many organisations have taken this approach to training. Online training can be a great tool when it comes to training thousands of people in a small time-frame, but is it really the choice to choose online training for a topic as important as safeguarding.
But that’s exactly what’s happening across education providers, councils, healthcare providers, and so many more. Research suggests that the main reasons for this is often that it’s convenient, perceived as cheap, and gives instant feedback. However, we’ve all done some online training, and so we’re all aware of the disadvantages. Learners can become easily distracted (especially when doing this at home or by yourself), the training lacks opportunity for collaboration and discussions, and the answers to quizzes to test knowledge can easily be found online.
For some topics, this might be acceptable, but for safeguarding? I highly disagree. When it comes to something so important, ALL organisations, especially those who are a significant part of children’s lives such as education providers, should take their safeguarding training responsibilities seriously and should never be choosing convenience and cost over quality.
Just think – how many times have you been in a job role and had to complete online training, and you’ve felt unmotivated, bored, and not really taken in much of the information? I know I have. Do we want to take those risks in safeguarding?
Good quality in-person training offers many benefits:
Chances for collaborative conversation between your staff, and also staff from other organisations in some circumstances. Such training provides peer learning and support opportunities – which themselves have value in improving the quality of our safeguarding work – and networking opportunities.
An engaging environment
Teaching from experts
Team building opportunities
Personalised attention and the opportunity to ask and answer questions that can be specific to your organisation
Motivation and accountability.
While we all know that online training is not as effective as in-person training, but the bigger myth is that of cost. Online training can’t provide the value that in-person training does, but it’s also not always much cheaper. For instance, High Speed Training offers Designated Safeguarding Lead training at £78pp inc. VAT, meaning if you purchase two places for your DSL and your Deputy, you’ll be paying £156 for a 3 hour online course. Whereas if you book onto one of Keep Governance and Safeguarding’s DSL and deputies courses, we offer 2 places for just £210. Schools choosing this option pay just £54 extra for a full day of training for two members of staff, and all of the previously mentioned benefits.
We can also use this same evidence for Governor training. The NSPCC offers online governor training for £25 per person. A school requires a minimum of 7 governors, which brings the total cost to £175 for 3 hours of training; however, most schools have more than 7. We charge £300 to come into your school for a 3-hour governor session, meaning there’s little to no additional cost (depending on the number of governors you have), with all of the additional face-to-face benefits.
Most education providers don’t teach their students online for a reason; because they wouldn’t learn as well as they do when being taught face-to-face. It is no different for safeguarding staff. Safeguarding must NEVER be something in which we choose convenience over quality, and choosing good quality in-person safeguarding training from us won’t cost you significantly more
https://www.peoplehr.com/en-gb/resources/blog/elearning-at-work/
https://studyacademy.co.uk/7-benefits-of-online-learning-for-corporate-organisations/
https://www.cpduk.co.uk/news/the-undeniable-benefits-of-face-to-face-training-and-courses
https://www.berry.edu/articles/blog/2024/in-person-advantage
https://mylearning.nspcc.org.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=304