PPE Training

PPE training is often the first control an organisation puts in place, and personal protective equipment sits at the bottom of the hierarchy of control deliberately.

The order runs from eliminating the hazard, to substituting something safer, to isolating people from it, to engineering controls, then administrative controls, and finally PPE.

PPE is last because it does nothing to the hazard. It puts a barrier between the hazard and one person, it depends on that person wearing it correctly every time, and it fails silently when they do not.

That does not make it optional. It makes it the layer that should be sitting on top of the others rather than standing in for them.

Training should say where PPE sits, not only how to wear it.

Safe Work Australia publishes the hierarchy of control. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s work health and safety course and risk management system.