The upcoming arrival of a raft of new fire safety regulations in the UK has prompted the launch of a new fire safety course by The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).
Professionals working in the fire and security services sector will be able to start studying for the new Certificate in Fire Safety for Construction next month, the CIOB has revealed.
The new certificate brings together the fire safety and construction sectors for the first time and the implementation of the course, along with new buildings regulations that will take effect in 2023, has been undertaken in response to the recommendations of Dame Judith Hackett’s Building a Safer Future report.
Dame Judith’s report was published in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster, a major consequence of which will be an overhaul of fire safety in buildings.
The new course will be designed to train workplace fire safety professionals in areas such as existing and future legislation, building design and construction, risk assessment, the science of fires, how humans behave when a fire occurs and the management and implementation of fires safety systems, the CIOB stated.
Describing the course as a “crucial aspect of building safety”, course leader and fire safety expert Brad Walker said: “It has been designed for those who are looking to gain an improved understanding of how fire safety principles are applied in the built environment”.
He added that it will provide a “stepping stone” for those who have management-level responsibility for fire safety.
The Building a Safer Future reports set out a series of recommendations aimed at correcting a series of failings it concluded had contributed to the Grenfell tragedy.
Among these issues were ignorance of the fire safety regulations, indifference about them, a lack of prioritisation of safety, an absence of clarity over matters of responsibility and accountability and a lack of measures to enforce and oversee regulations.