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Training
Common Questions

Common Questions

What course should I be attending?

Your specific role and individual responsibilities will determine what training is appropriate. To help you and your manager decide what training and development is right for you, there is a "one stop shop" for information in learn.gateway on all occupational risk training courses in the BBC.

Some courses are available online at your desktop, whilst others involve face-to-face classroom learning. The subjects range from general health and safety subjects, through organisational and production risk management to first aid. In addition there is also information available about specialist safety courses such as Hostile Environments, Public Order etc. which are delivered by external experts.

Courses are run regularly and across the whole of the UK. If you want a course tailored to your own particular requirements contact your local Training Co-ordination Team, it can easily be arranged.

There are eight main categories of OR training, these being:

Induction/Core Learning
Production General
Production Audio & Music
Production Design
Production Camera Lights
Production Journalism
Non Production
Topic Specific

By way of guidance, a corporate matrix for occupational risk training is available to help managers decide what training their staff should be undertaking. Furthermore, a description of each individual training module is available to help you when considering the training needs of yourself or your staff.

How do I book onto a course?

Online courses
Online courses do not need to be pre-booked. To simply complete an online training course:

Find the course, either use the Search Site box on the Learn.gateway site or go to the online page for a list of the available courses.
Select the desired course by clicking on the course title and follow the onscreen instructions.
Your progress/completion of the module will be shown and recorded on My History.

Face-to-face course
To book a face-to-face or classroom-based training course:

Find the course by using the Search Site box on the Learn.gateway site or go to the face-to-face courses page for a list of the available courses.
Check place availability at the bottom of the course details page. If no dates are shown please contact your divisional Training Co-ordination Team.
For some courses (e.g. SAP and the Hot House masterclasses) you can book yourself directly on the course or get on the waiting list by clicking on "Book a Place"
For most occupational risk courses, you'll need to discuss your training request with your line manager.
If your request is approved, your line manager will either book your place using the online booking system or pass it on to your local authoriser.
Email confirmation of your booking will be sent to you.

NB: A hard copy booking form Booking Form, available from your divisional Training Co-ordination Team, should be used:

for courses with pre-requisites (e.g. Safe Management of Live Events, Safe Design & Build of Production Sets etc.)
by departments who do not operate the online booking system

My History
Your booking will also be recorded in My History your personal training record for both online and face-to-face courses.

External bookings
Self-employed freelances or individuals from other broadcasters/organisations are welcomed to attend the BBC's occupational risk training courses. To do so, they should simply log onto our external training website, select the relevant course by checking availability on the course details page, download the booking form, and the completed form to the BBC Training Co-ordination Team, BBC Training & Development, Room A16, BBC Wood Norton, Evesham, Worcestershire.

Who pays for the training?

Central funding
Training funding has now been centralised. This in effect means that training is provided "free" to internal staff within overall resource constraints. The removal of the cost element enables divisions to focus on releasing their staff for programmes as and when scheduled without having to think about what is the cost of the event.

It also means that Training & Development will have better plans to work from, and this should improve delivering the best solutions, phasing and utilisation. The central funding is held by the Learning Board chaired by Mark Byford.

Externals and BBC Partners
External staff and BBC partners e.g. BBC Resources, New Media & Technology, Red Bee Media and BBC Worldwide, World Service, BBC Resources etc., hold their own training budget and therefore pay for their attendance on our courses. The price for each course is published on learn.gateway on the course details page.

Divisional discretionary spend
An element of the centralised training budget is allocated directly to the divisions to spend on additional training and development initiatives either with Training & Development Delivery, or with external suppliers of training.

Where/when are the courses published?

Training cycle
The divisions formulate their individual training demand plans in October/November. Training & Development Delivery then calculate the cost of delivering these plans and forward this to the Learning Board for their approval in December.

Once approved the training programme, including occupational risk training, is published on learn.gateway in February/March for the following financial year. Formal reviews of the divisional training plans are carried out each quarter to adjust the schedule in the light of changing business need.

Updates
Due to changing business priorities, the engagement of productions teams, and short notice assignments, it is often necessary to adjust the schedule. The take-up of individual courses are continually monitored to see whether the class size needs to be increased, additional classes to be put on, or to cancel the event.

Learn.gateway is underpinned by a live system called SAP TEM (Training Event Management) and all changes are immediately updated on the system and shown on learn.gateway. You should check the site for the latest situation in terms of new courses, cancelled sessions, and availability of places on individual courses.

Do freelances have to attend the courses as well?

In short, the answer is yes.

In health and safety terms, freelances who are currently working on BBC productions are treated the same as BBC employees and therefore are required to undertake health and safety training prior to going out on location. For most production safety training, this will be centrally funded and therefore at no additional cost to either the production nor the individual freelancer.

To book a freelancer onto a course the production should obtain a freelancers booking form from their divisional Training Co-ordination Team, complete the relevant details and then return this back to the Training Co-ordination Team. These details will then be forwarded to SAP HR in order that a temporary staff number can be issued. This in turn allows the Training Co-ordination Team to book the individual onto the required course. The reason for this is that the system can then record the details of which individual has completed the training, when, where, and for which production team. Normally SAP HR will take about a working day to turn around the issue of the staff number.

What happens if I need to attend a course at short notice and there are no spare places?

For some occupational risk courses, the demand for places can be high and it is not uncommon for a session to be fully booked several weeks in advance. The number of available places for OR courses are continually monitored and wherever practicable, additional courses will be scheduled in, or the number of places available in an individual class increased, to accommodate any extra demand.

You should check place availability at the bottom of the individual course details page. It is always advisable to book your place onto the session of your choice as early as possible.

However it is appreciated that some staff, particularly those in programme making because of its mandatory nature, may need to attend a health and safety course at very short notice. Where this is the case, you or your manager should immediately contact your divisional Training Co-ordination Team who will be able to provide advice on the best course of action.

What happens if I can't attend?

The Training Co-ordination Teams are always happy to help make changes to a booking. But whilst it is appreciated that staff may need to cancel or change bookings from time to time, we have a cancellation policy in operation as the demand for OR course places is usually high, and late cancellations can deny someone else from attending a particular session.

Cancellations advised four weeks or more prior to commencement of the course do not incur a cancellation fee. Charges apply for periods less than four weeks as follows.

Substitute delegates will be accepted at any time, subject to notification to the relevant Training Co-ordination Team.

Period of cancellation	Charge
2 to 4 weeks	£75
0 to 2 weeks	£150
Please note: For Public Order, Hostile Environments Training and Hostile Environment Refresher, different cancellation fees apply. See below.
Public Order	More than 2 weeks - No charge Less than 2 weeks, more than 1 week before course - 50% (£300 internal, £360 external) Within 1 week* - 100% (£600 internal, £720 external*)
Hostile Environments Training	More than 2 weeks - No charge Less than 2 weeks, more than 1 week before course - 50% (£1,150 internal, £1,380 external) Within 1 week* - 100% (£2,300 internal, £2,760 external*)
Hostile Environment Refresher	More than 2 weeks - No charge Less than 2 weeks, more than 1 week before course - 50% (£600 internal, £1,200 external) Within 1 week* - 100% (£1,200 internal, £1,440 external*)

* External include BBC Resources, New Media & Technology, Red Bee Media and Worldwide.

How do I feedback on the quality/content of the training?

Face-to-face training
You can provide your feedback on any face-to-face course you've attended by completing an online form which should take no longer than 10 minutes. Attendees will receive an automated reminder email in any case about two weeks after completing the face-to-face training.

Online training
You can provide feedback on any online course in the same way. It should take only a couple of minutes to complete this form.

What about refresher training?

Because of the importance of updating competencies and keeping track of legislative changes etc. refresher training for the majority of OR courses is set at 3 years. The description of each individual training module provides details of the refresher cycle for every OR training course.

For general production safety training, it is recommended that staff attend the 2-hour Production Safety Refresher.

How do I find out more information?

In the first instance you should contact your divisional Training Co-ordination Team with any questions about BBC training.

If the query is specific to the OR training portfolio, you could also contact Vittorio Vanloo, OR Training Manager. His details are:

Vittorio Vanloo
Occupational Risk Manager
Training & Development Delivery
MC3, D6 White City Media Centre, Wood Lane, London W12 7TP
Tel: (020 800) 83098
Mobile: 07764335776
Email: vittorio.vanloo@bbc.co.uk

For other points of help and assistance related to BBC training and development, please try one of the following:

www.bbctraining.com
Gateway Helpline - 02 82666
Learn.Gateway Helpline - 02 89427
Training Helpline - 01 20345

For queries on non-training related occupational risk matters, contact the ASK AL team by phoning 0464 from any BBC extension (0870 411 0464 from other phones in the UK) or e-mail Ask AL.