SMSTS courses, accredited by CITB, are designed to train you in all aspects of environmental and health and safety legislation that will come under your responsibility as a construction site manager but you can't simply take the course and forget about it, you will need to refresh your training every five years by attending an SMSTS refresher course.

The Site Management Safety Training Scheme is a five-day classroom-based course with an assessment at the end to validate your skills and expertise, getting you ready for leading teams on site.

However that’s not the end of the story. You also need to update your qualification within five years of successfully completing your SMSTS training. Luckily, you don’t need to study it all from scratch. The SMSTS Refresher course or SMSTS-R course is a two-day classroom-based course that recaps any important changes to legislation and procedure.

Overview of the CITB SMSTS Refresher course

• The refresher course lasts two days and equates to 15 tutorial hours.
• It takes place in a classroom led by a CITB approved trainer who has experience managing construction sites.
• Classrooms are between 4 and 20 participants.
• You will refresh your existing knowledge of legislation pertaining to health and safety and the environment.
• You will also learn about changes in the law and get to grips with the latest best practices.
• You must be in possession of a valid SMSTS certificate to take this course.
• You will need to pass an SMSTS exam with a minimum score of 80%.
• the exam will have 25 questions, five being “safety critical questions” that must be answered correctly to pass.

Why do I need to attend an SMSTS Refresher course?

Saves you time and money

Taking the two-day refresher course before your current SMSTS certificate has expired means you won’t have to re-take the initial five-day course again. This would cost you an additional £200 and three days out of work.

Stops you getting fired

Updating your knowledge and skills is essential for ensuring you are working to current best practices and laws. Construction site operators will insist all managers hold a valid SMSTS certificate to manage personnel on site.

Your team will operate in a safe environment

Your training will remind you how to set-up and maintain a safe working environment for everyone under your management by eradicating, or reducing as far as possible, all possible risks to safety and health.

You will know what to in an emergency

Over time, we all forget things. An unusual scenario you have learned about in training my not come up in your day-to-day work. If it does occur, and you haven’t kept up your training, you could be putting someone’s life in danger if you don’t know how to respond appropriately.

This qualification covers you in the event of an emergency because you know the right course of action to take. Failure to keep your SMSTS qualification valid means you are putting yourself in jeopardy through not following correct procedure.

You may wish to read about the content of the SMSTS course which will be similar to the SMSTS Refresher course content. To find an SMSTS Refresher course near you, go to our course finder and enter your town or postcode to see the closest course near you.