SA businesses to begin ‘COVID clean’ training

More than 400 businesses register interest for infection control training.

More than 400 South Australian businesses and industry sectors have responded to register their interest in ‘COVID clean’ infection control training for frontline workers and staff as they prepare to reopen safely.

On the back of last week’s announcement that more than 5000 ‘COVID clean’ training places would be made available, the state government has moved to initially engage three training providers to rollout the ‘COVID clean’ toolkit.

“In partnership with the training sector we have acted quickly to deliver this training so that South Australians can have confidence that the businesses they visit are able to open in a ‘COVID safe’ way,” Minister for Innovation and Skills, David Pisoni said.

Time Education and Training and Open Colleges from the private training sector and TAFE SA as the public provider, are set to deliver training from next week.

“There will be a focus on the hospitality, food handling, retail and tourism sectors, as we look to get as many businesses as possible back up and running in the next few weeks,”Pisoni said.

“Other sectors will include transport and logistics, and within the health sector more broadly so that we can minimise the risk of spreading infection in the South Australian community.”

Time Education and Training CEO John Heidt said: “We are delighted to be supporting the South Australian and Australian Governments in delivering this training, particularly for workers in the transport and logistics, retail, and food preparation sectors, so that customers can be confident they are in a clean and safe environment.”

TAFE SA CEO David Coltman said: “We’re really pleased to be supporting the South Australian business community to get back up and running with the delivery of this training program. Our expert teaching staff have experience in delivering this specialist training which will ensure businesses have the confidence to operate while following the necessary safety requirements.”

Open Colleges CEO Alexis Watt said: “Open Colleges is Australia’s largest and oldest distance, online and blended learning provider, and we’re excited to deliver this training across the State to help get South Australia’s economy up and running again as safely as possible.”

Participants will learn a range of skills, including: hand hygiene practices; effective surface cleaning; use of personal protective equipment (PPE); disposal of contaminated waste; hazard identification, control and reporting; appropriate protocols and responses in the event of an incident; and knowledge regarding the basis of infection and transmission.

Up to 5500 training places for this accredited training will be available in SA, with funding from the Federal Government’s $80 million Infection Control Training Fund including matched funding of $2.67 million from the state government.

It comes as SA Premier Steven Marshall announced pubs, gyms, cinemas, places of worship, beauty salons and other sites will be permitted to have up to 80 people on their premises from June 1 as long as they comply with appropriate safeguards.

“Thanks to our state’s world-leading response to the threat of COVID-19, we are now in a position to give many more South Australian businesses a head start, and with potentially four times the capacity as to what was first flagged in our initial roadmap,” Marshall said.

“This pandemic has always been a crisis on two fronts, health and economic, and we are committed to shielding South Australians through both.”

Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said safety requirements would need to be adhered to as part of the government’s in-principle approach for the reopening of businesses.

The accelerated changes include requirements of a 20-person maximum per room, up to a maximum of 80 throughout a facility, if they are able to physically distance appropriately and meet density requirements.

It also allows patrons to consume alcohol without the requirement of a meal as long as they are seated in a room with a maximum of 20 customers.

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