SSSTS Training in Stoke-on-Trent – £199 Live Online

Course overview

Course overview

There is a clear moment in most site careers when the work stops being only about the task in your own hands. One week you are laying the block, pulling the cable or setting the shutter; the next you are the person signing the permit, walking a new starter through the induction and being asked to stand over a method statement while a gang waits on your say-so. That step up is where the CITB Site Supervisors’ Safety Training Scheme earns its place. Over two days, the SSSTS gives supervisors, gangers, chargehands and first-line managers working across Stoke-on-Trent the grounding they need to take charge of a section of a construction site and keep the people in it safe.

We run the SSSTS as a live, tutor-led class delivered by video link, so a supervisor working anywhere in the Potteries or the wider Staffordshire area can gain the qualification without writing off two days to traffic on the A500 and a hunt for somewhere to park. You log into a genuine classroom that is happening in real time, put your questions to the tutor the moment they land, and sit the end-of-course assessment on screen. Prefer a room with other delegates in it? A classroom option is open as well. For most people supervising work around Stoke, though, the online route is simply the quicker and less disruptive way to get certified and back on site.

The point of the two days is not to turn you into a safety officer or to bury you in paperwork you will never touch again. It is to leave you clear on where you stand legally, confident about the decisions a supervisor is expected to make, and comfortable challenging something that is not right without second-guessing yourself. Plenty of good tradespeople hesitate the first time they have to stop a job or send a piece of kit off site, and the SSSTS is designed to take that hesitation away by showing you exactly why the responsibility sits with you and how to carry it well.

What the SSSTS is, and where it fits

The SSSTS is the recognised first-rung safety qualification for anyone carrying a supervisory role on a construction or civil engineering job. It sits within the CITB Site Safety Plus family of courses, is endorsed by CITB and is recognised by Build UK (the successor to the UK Contractors Group). That backing is the reason so many principal contractors and clients working across Stoke-on-Trent will not hand a supervisor a section of the works until they can produce a current SSSTS certificate.

It helps to separate the SSSTS from its bigger sibling early on, because the two are easy to mix up. The SSSTS is the two-day course for the people who supervise a squad, a trade or a defined part of a project. The SMSTS — the Site Management Safety Training Scheme — is the five-day course written for the managers and agents who plan and control a whole site. A useful rule of thumb: if you answer for a team or a package of work rather than the entire scheme, the SSSTS is the qualification pitched at your level of responsibility. If you have already outgrown that and now run projects end to end, the SMSTS is the one to look at instead.

Who the SSSTS in Stoke-on-Trent is for

This course is aimed squarely at the people who direct the work of others on site, whether that duty is brand new or something you have quietly grown into over several years. It tends to be the right fit if you are:

• A supervisor, ganger, chargehand or foreman running a section of a Stoke-on-Trent site
• A first-line manager or team leader who came up through the trades and now oversees them
• A tradesperson about to pick up supervisory duties for the first time
• The person delivering site inductions, toolbox talks and the morning briefing
• Expected to keep an eye on risk assessments and method statements as part of the job
• Working anywhere across Staffordshire and asked by a main contractor or client to hold a valid SSSTS
• An employer who wants to lift the safety competence of supervisors who have recently been promoted

You do not need a stack of years behind you to walk through the door. A good number of delegates book their place the very week they step up, so the certificate and the added responsibility arrive together, which, honestly, is the sensible way round.

What you will cover over the two days

Across the two days your CITB-approved tutor works through both the legal duties a supervisor carries and the practical safety habits that make those duties stick on a live site. The emphasis stays firmly on what you actually do day to day — how you plan a task, brief a crew, spot a hazard and deal with it there and then, rather than theory studied for its own sake. The main areas include:

• The Health and Safety at Work Act and exactly where a supervisor stands within it
• An overview of the CDM Regulations and how they shape everyone’s duties on site
• Reading, monitoring and clearly communicating risk assessments
• Method statements and safe systems of work applied to real, everyday tasks
• Running site inductions and toolbox talks that people actually take in
• Behavioural safety and how a supervisor shapes the culture of their own gang
• Occupational health, welfare and the routine hazards that turn up on most sites
• The supervisor’s part in monitoring, reporting and keeping proper records

Because the class is live and two-way, the days are built around discussion and worked scenarios rather than a one-directional lecture. You will talk through situations that map onto the sort of work going on around Stoke-on-Trent — city-centre regeneration, new housing on the edges of the six towns, the logistics and distribution sheds strung along the A50 corridor, industrial units in the Ceramic Valley area and civils schemes across the county. You are welcome to bring your own live-site problems to the tutor as they come up; that is often where the most useful part of the two days happens.

A fair amount of time is spent on the two documents a supervisor lives with day in, day out: the risk assessment and the method statement. It is one thing to be handed a RAMS pack at the start of a job and quite another to read it properly, decide whether it actually reflects the task in front of you, and brief a crew on it in a way that sticks. The course walks through how a supervisor interrogates those documents, what to do when the work on the ground has drifted from what was written, and how to feed a genuine concern back up the line rather than quietly working around it. The same practical lens is applied to inductions and toolbox talks, not as a box-ticking ritual but as the moments where you set the tone for how your part of the site behaves.

You will also spend time on the human side of supervision, which is often the part that catches newly promoted people off guard. Managing subcontractors and visitors, having a difficult word with someone you were on the tools alongside last month, spotting the early signs that a delegate’s attention has wandered on a repetitive task: these are the everyday realities of the role, and the course treats them as seriously as the legislation. By the close of the second day the aim is that you can look at your section of the works and know, without hesitation, what good looks like and how to hold people to it.

How the course runs and how you are assessed

The SSSTS runs over two consecutive days, each scheduled from 08:30 to 16:00, so both sessions wrap up by four o’clock. That earlier finish is deliberate. It gives delegates room to handle an end-of-day handover on site, pick children up from school or deal with whatever else the evening holds, without being tied to a screen into the night.

The assessment is honest and there is nothing lurking in the small print. To come away with the qualification you need to:

• Attend both days in full and take part in the group exercises
• Work through the short activities and knowledge checks as the sessions go along
• Pass the multiple-choice examination held at the end of the second day

Our SSSTS courses carry a 98% pass rate, and that figure says a great deal about how the learning is delivered. Because so much of it happens live, with a tutor who keeps checking that the room has genuinely followed each point before moving on, very little is left to chance by the time the paper comes round. Engage with the two days and the exam rarely throws up any surprises.

What you need before you book

There are no formal entry requirements, and you do not need any existing safety qualification to sign up. Every part of the course, from the materials, the tutor’s delivery and the examination paper — is in English, so delegates do need a sound standard of spoken and written English to keep pace with the sessions and complete the assessment. Some site experience is helpful but it is not a condition of attending.

For the online class you will also need a computer, laptop or tablet fitted with a webcam and microphone, both of which are built into most modern devices, plus a reasonably steady internet connection. If you have ever joined a video call for work or family, you already have everything the course asks for. We send out clear joining instructions in good time before day one, so nobody is left wrestling with the technology on the morning it matters.

Why supervisors around Stoke train by live video link

Stoke-on-Trent sits at a genuinely busy junction of the Midlands construction map. The M6 runs down its western edge, the A500 D-road threads through the middle of the conurbation and the A50 pushes east toward Derby, and there is steady, ongoing demand for competent supervisors across housing, commercial, logistics and regeneration work throughout the Potteries and the surrounding parts of Staffordshire. When a project needs its supervisors qualified before the next phase can start, getting them through their SSSTS without delay genuinely counts. Training by live video link strips out the two things that usually get in the way: the travel and the downtime that comes with it.

Instead of surrendering extra hours to a commute, or paying for a night away near a distant training centre, your supervisors log in from home, from the site cabin or from anywhere with a signal, and learn in a real classroom led by a real tutor. It keeps people close to their sites, takes the cost and hassle of travel out of the equation, and makes it far easier to release two or three from the same firm on the same dates. Supervisors spread across Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, Stone, Leek, Kidsgrove, Biddulph and Trentham all join the same course to the same standard, without a single one of them having to work out where to leave the van.

None of that waters down the learning. You see and hear the tutor live, you speak up the instant you have a question, and you sit precisely the same assessment as a classroom delegate would. If you would honestly rather be in a room with other people, the classroom option stays open, but for the majority of Stoke supervisors, the live online route is the more practical way to walk away certified.

Course fees and your certificate

Our CITB SSSTS course is £199 for the live online video-link class and £279 for the classroom option. Whichever you choose, the fee covers the full two days of tutor-led training, your course materials and the end-of-course examination. On passing you are awarded the CITB Site Safety Plus SSSTS certificate, which is valid for five years. To keep it live you take a one-day SSSTS Refresher before the expiry date, rather than sitting the full two days again — a much lighter touch once you already hold the qualification.

For construction employers, it is worth knowing that the SSSTS is CITB grant claimable for those who are eligible. That funding can take a real bite out of the cost of putting a group of newly promoted supervisors through their training, and our team is happy to point you toward the grant guidance and eligibility criteria if you are unsure where your business stands. For a firm registered with CITB, the levy you already pay is partly there to support exactly this kind of investment, so it is well worth checking what you can reclaim before you write the training off as a straight cost.

Beyond the grant, there is a straightforward commercial case for keeping supervisors qualified and current. Having the right people carrying a valid SSSTS is increasingly a condition of getting onto tender lists and of being allowed to start on a principal contractor’s site in the first place. A lapsed certificate on the wrong day can hold up a mobilisation, so a lot of the Stoke firms we work with prefer to plan their refreshers well ahead rather than scramble when a card is about to expire. If you tell us roughly when your team’s certificates fall due, we can help you keep the whole group in date without anyone dropping off.

How to book your Stoke-on-Trent SSSTS

Booking your SSSTS takes only a few minutes. Pick the live online or classroom option, choose a date that suits you, and reserve your place at booking.skillstg.co.uk/course/SSSTS. If you are putting several supervisors through at once, or you want the training to line up neatly with a project start on site, give our team a call on 0808 164 2780 and we will help you settle on dates and answer anything you need to know about the course, the technology or group arrangements. If you would like to gauge where you stand before the day, you are welcome to run through our free SSSTS mock test first.

Frequently asked questions

How is the two-day SSSTS timetabled, and when do we finish each day?

The SSSTS runs across two consecutive days. Each day starts at 08:30 and closes at 16:00, so you are finished by four o’clock on both. You do need to be present for the whole of both days to qualify, because the assessment at the end of day two assumes you have sat through everything before it.

SSSTS or SMSTS — which one matches my role on site?

Look at what you are responsible for. The SSSTS is the two-day course for supervisors, gangers and first-line managers who oversee a section or a trade within a project. The SMSTS is the five-day course for site managers and agents who plan and run the whole site. If you supervise part of the works rather than the entire job, the SSSTS is the one written for you; if you have moved into running projects outright, the SMSTS is the better fit.

Do I have to get to a training centre in Stoke-on-Trent to attend?

No. We deliver the SSSTS as a live online video-link class, so supervisors right across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire can qualify from home or the site office without setting foot in a venue or losing time to the A500. If you would genuinely prefer to sit in a room, a classroom option is available as well.

Will a certificate earned online be accepted by contractors around Stoke?

Yes. The qualification is exactly the same however you attend it: the syllabus, the assessment and the certificate do not change. The SSSTS is endorsed by CITB and recognised by Build UK, so principal contractors and clients across Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and the wider industry accept the certificate whether you trained online or in a classroom.

What does the SSSTS cost, and what is included in the fee?

The live online video-link class is £199 and the classroom option is £279. Either way the price covers the two full days of tutor-led training, your course materials and the final examination. There are no add-on charges to sit the assessment or receive your certificate on passing.

How long does the certificate last, and what happens when it runs out?

The CITB SSSTS certificate is valid for five years. Rather than repeating the whole two-day course when it nears its expiry, you complete a one-day SSSTS Refresher to bring it back up to date and reset the five-year clock. Booking the refresher before the certificate lapses keeps you continuously qualified.

Is any prior experience or qualification needed to book?

None at all. There are no formal entry requirements and you do not need an existing safety qualification to sign up. You do need a good standard of spoken and written English, since the materials and the exam are delivered in English. A bit of construction experience helps you get more from the discussion, but it is not essential, which is exactly why so many people take the SSSTS at the point they first move into a supervisory role.

Modules breakdown

Our comprehensive SSSTS training covers the following key areas:

Health and Safety Law

• Current legislation affecting construction supervision
• Legal responsibilities of supervisors on site
• Understanding Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) requirements
• Health and safety regulations specific to construction activities
• Consequences of non-compliance for individuals and companies

Risk Management

• Principles of risk assessment
• Understanding and implementing method statements
• Delivering method statement briefings for workers
• Managing common site hazards effectively
• Control measures for various construction activities
• Managing hazardous substances

Supervisory Responsibilities

• The supervisor’s role in safety management
• Building and maintaining a positive safety culture
• Identifying and addressing bad practice
• Effective communication techniques
• Managing subcontractors and visitors
• Conducting site inductions and safety briefings

Practical Safety Management

• Planning for site safety
• Conducting effective toolbox talks
• Safety inspection procedures
• Accident reporting and investigation
• Record-keeping requirements
• Promoting safety awareness among workers

Health and Wellbeing

• Occupational health concerns in construction
• Behavioural safety approaches
• Managing workplace stress
• Noise, vibration and dust exposure
• Manual handling best practices
• Worker welfare requirements

Environmental Issues

• Environmental responsibilities on site
• Waste management and reduction
• Energy efficiency considerations
• Pollution prevention
• Sustainable construction practices
• Regulatory compliance

Course Structure

The CITB SSSTS course is delivered over two consecutive days through our professional remote learning platform:

• Led by experienced instructors with extensive construction backgrounds
• Interactive sessions with fellow construction professionals
• Comprehensive digital training materials provided
• Practical scenarios and case studies
• Group discussions and knowledge-sharing opportunities

Full attendance across both days is required to qualify for the examination. The course combines theoretical knowledge with practical application to ensure relevance to daily supervisory duties.