Refresh Your Skills, Refresh Your Safety
What Is Refresher Training?
Refresher training is training delivered to individuals who have already completed a qualification or been previously assessed as competent in a specific field. Its purpose is to update knowledge, reinforce skills, and ensure key competencies haven’t been lost.
These sessions typically deliver important skills back to the front of mind, addressing bad habits, and incorporating any changes in legislation, procedures, or technology.
Reinforcing What Works
Over time, even the most well-trained worker can forget key details or drift from standard procedures. Refresher training offers a chance to re-engage with best practices, reinforce what’s been learned, and increase confidence in daily tasks.
Adapting to New Rules and Technology
The workplace isn’t static—regulations change, equipment gets updated, and processes improve. Refresher training helps workers stay informed and adapt to these changes, ensuring they are always working to current standards.
Workers returning from long-term leave, secondment, or illness should also undergo refresher training to reorient themselves with safety expectations.
Fixing Habits Before They Become Hazards
Unintentional shortcuts or incorrect routines often creep into daily work. Refresher training helps identify and correct these habits, reducing the risk of incidents and ensuring safer, more effective performance.
When Regular Training is a Recognised Best Practice
In some industries, like forklift operations, refresher training is explicitly recommended and in medium–high risk industries, it is recommended that a refresher be carried out every 12 months or sooner if decided by the PCBU, to help workers stay current with health and safety practices. Even in roles where it’s not legally required, proactive refresher training reduces risk and improves overall job performance.
Understanding Refresher Training and Unit Standards
One common question is why refresher training doesn’t result in new Unit Standards being added to your NZQA Record of Achievement. Here’s the answer:
- Unit Standards never expire once achieved
- Refresher training doesn’t duplicate the original certification
- Instead, it confirms that you are still competent and up to date
These competency-based refreshers are a vital tool to support your ongoing professional development, even if they don’t appear as new credits on your NZQA profile.
Additional Benefits for Workers and Employers
Refresher training isn’t just about compliance. It provides measurable value to individuals and organisations alike:
- Reinforces key safety messages and improves long-term retention
- Highlights gaps in knowledge or procedure before they become problems
- Improves productivity by reducing errors and downtime
- Builds a positive safety culture, where continuous learning is the norm
“They had nothing but great things to say about your training... much more practical, with a hands-on approach rather than just theory. They took a lot more from it than previous training elsewhere.”
— Felice Croft, General Manager at Croft Poles & Timber
When to Consider Refresher Training
Refresher training becomes especially important when:
- There are changes to internal processes or procedures
- New equipment is introduced into the workplace
- An incident or near miss occurs, prompting a review
- A worker returns from extended leave or absence
- A standard refresh cycle has elapsed since the last training
The Legal Angle: Meeting Your HSWA Obligations
Under New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, employers (PCBUs) are required to provide training that ensures, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their workers. Refresher training is one of the most effective ways to meet this duty, particularly in high-risk or changing environments.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Fresh, Keep It Safe
Refresher training is more than a routine check-in, it’s an essential step in protecting your people, meeting your obligations, and maintaining high standards across your organisation.
At Training 4 Safety, we make refresher training practical, engaging, and relevant to your workplace. Whether it’s delivered onsite or at our purpose-built Whangārei facility, we tailor it to meet your needs.
