On completion, learners will be able to demonstrate an understanding of:

• The importance of infection prevention and control in the workplace
• The legal framework, including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and COSHH 2002
• The chain of infection and how each link is broken
• The routes of transmission of infection
• Standard precautions in the workplace
• Effective hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene
• The selection and use of personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Cleaning, disinfection and the management of spillages
• The safe handling and disposal of waste
• Outbreak management and the reporting of concerns

• Attendance decisions drive transmission. Whether an unwell person comes to work determines more than any cleaning schedule.
• Sick pay changed in April 2026. Payment from the first qualifying day removes a real barrier to staying at home.
• Ventilation is a primary control and the least managed. Sealed buildings and recirculating systems undermine it.
• Workplaces have no clinical framework. Infection control has to be built from HR, facilities and management arrangements.
• Duties extend beyond employees. Customers, visitors and contractors are affected by how risk is managed.
• Outbreaks are operational events. Continuity planning matters as much as hygiene.

• Level 2 qualification for non-clinical workplaces across all sectors
• Delivered entirely online through the Britsafe learning management system (LMS) no physical classroom attendance is required
• Course materials are provided digitally (soft copy) via the LMS
• Assessed via an online examination through the Britsafe Examination Management System (EMS), with a minimum pass mark of 70%
• Certification issued with an anti-counterfeit hologram security seal, available both as a physical copy and as a soft (digital) copy
• Written for ordinary workplaces rather than adapted from clinical guidance
• Treats attendance policy and sick pay as infection control measures
• Covers ventilation properly, including its assessment
• Includes business continuity and public-facing exposure
• Available fully online to learners in the UK and internationally

Knowledge developed:

• Transmission routes and their relevance to different work settings
• Ventilation as a primary control and how adequacy is judged
• Hand and respiratory hygiene, cleaning and shared facilities
• Attendance, exclusion, sick pay and vulnerable workers
• Spills, waste, outbreaks, continuity and risk assessment

Skills developed:

• Recognising poorly ventilated spaces and taking practical action
• Identifying high-touch surfaces requiring frequent cleaning
• Recognising where attendance policy undermines exclusion
• Supporting colleagues to stay at home when unwell
• Dealing with a blood or body fluid spill correctly
• Recognising a pattern of absence that may indicate an outbreak

This Award is suitable for any workplace, and is particularly relevant for:

• Managers, supervisors and team leaders
• Human resources and people professionals
• Facilities, premises and office managers
• Health and safety coordinators and advisers
• Retail, hospitality and customer-facing staff
• School, college and nursery staff
• Transport and delivery personnel
• Manufacturing and warehouse supervisors
• Cleaning and janitorial supervisors
• First aiders and appointed persons
• Small business owners
• Employee representatives

No prior qualification is required.

There are no formal academic prerequisites for this Level 2 Award. It is open to learners aged 16 and above with a reasonable standard of spoken and written English, sufficient to engage with course materials and complete the assessment. No prior knowledge is assumed.

Course content is structured around progressive learning blocks covering why infection prevention matters at work; legal duties including those to non-employees; how infection spreads; droplet, airborne and contact transmission; ventilation as a primary control; assessing ventilation and carbon dioxide as a proxy; recirculation and sealed buildings; hand hygiene at work; respiratory hygiene; cleaning, disinfection and high-touch surfaces; shared facilities, kitchens and hot desking; attendance and sickness policy as infection control; sick pay and its effect on attendance; designing workable exclusion arrangements; clinically vulnerable employees and adjustments; blood and body fluid spills; first aid considerations; waste handling; outbreak recognition and reporting; business continuity; and infection within workplace risk assessment.

Assessment is conducted through an online examination via the Britsafe Examination Management System (EMS). Learners must achieve a minimum score of 70% to pass. On successful completion, learners receive a certificate, available both as a physical copy and as a soft (digital) copy. Results and certificates are typically issued promptly following successful completion.

This Level 2 Award supports roles including:

• Manager, Supervisor or Team Leader
• Human Resources or People Assistant
• Facilities, Premises or Office Manager
• Health and Safety Coordinator
• Cleaning or Janitorial Supervisor
• Small Business Owner
• A stepping stone toward health and safety and facilities management qualifications

• Offices and professional services
• Retail, hospitality and leisure
• Education and childcare
• Manufacturing and production
• Warehousing, logistics and transport
• Facilities management and cleaning
• Public sector and local government
• Charities and the voluntary sector
• Events, venues and visitor attractions
• Contact centres and shared workspaces
• Any organisation with staff working indoors

• Supports the duty to assess and control infection risk at work
• Addresses attendance while unwell, the single largest source of workplace transmission
• Improves ventilation management, which is widely neglected
• Focuses cleaning effort on high-touch surfaces rather than floor area
• Supports workable exclusion arrangements that staff will actually follow
• Reduces absence and disruption through earlier outbreak recognition
• Supports continuity planning for periods of high absence
• Provides documented evidence of training for audit and assurance

• A recognised, portable credential relevant to every workplace
• Understanding of why attendance policy matters more than sanitiser
• Flexible online delivery that fits around any working pattern
• Practical knowledge of ventilation and cleaning priorities
• Confidence to deal with spills and report outbreaks
• Knowledge that applies at home as well as at work

Learners can apply this qualification directly to:

• Supporting colleagues to stay at home when unwell rather than praising attendance
• Recognising when a sickness policy is discouraging people from reporting illness
• Opening windows and improving airflow in occupied rooms
• Recognising stuffy, poorly ventilated spaces and requesting improvement
• Reducing occupancy or duration in poorly ventilated meeting rooms
• Prioritising cleaning of handles, switches, rails, keyboards and shared equipment
• Managing shared kitchens, hot desks and shared equipment hygienically
• Providing hand washing facilities and encouraging their use
• Covering coughs and sneezes and disposing of tissues immediately
• Dealing with a blood or body fluid spill using the correct procedure
• Noticing clusters of similar absence and reporting them
• Supporting clinically vulnerable colleagues through practical adjustments

This Award is best positioned as workplace-level knowledge. Learners often progress into:

• Britsafe Level 2 Award in the Prevention and Control of Infection in Health and Care Settings
• Britsafe Level 2 Award in Managing Safely
• Britsafe Level 2 Award in Risk Assessment
• Britsafe Level 1 Award in Managing Work Absences and Effective Return to Work
• Britsafe Level 1 Award in Basic First Aid Awareness
• Business continuity management training
• Facilities and building services training

• Health and safety coordinator and adviser routes
• Facilities and premises management pathways
• Human resources and people management development
• Business continuity and resilience roles
• Professional membership routes with relevant safety and facilities bodies

Britsafe Qualifications UK Limited delivers this qualification fully online, making it accessible to learners across the UK and internationally without the need to attend a physical training centre. Transmission routes, the role of ventilation and the principles of hygiene and cleaning apply identically everywhere. Statutory duties, sick pay arrangements, reporting requirements and public health guidance are national, so learners working outside Great Britain should confirm the framework applicable locally.

1. What does this qualification cover?
It covers infection prevention in non-clinical workplaces: transmission routes, legal duties, ventilation, hand and respiratory hygiene, cleaning and high-touch surfaces, shared facilities, attendance and exclusion, vulnerable workers, spills, waste, outbreak recognition, business continuity and risk assessment.

2. How does it differ from the health and care settings Award?
By environment and by what is available. The care settings Award covers clinical and care environments standard precautions, sharps, personal protective equipment, isolation, and care of people who are vulnerable and receiving direct care. This Award covers ordinary workplaces, where there is no clinical framework, no infection prevention team and no standard precautions, and where control depends instead on ventilation, cleaning, attendance policy and management arrangements. Organisations providing care in a workplace setting may benefit from both.

3. Why is attendance treated as the main control?
Because it determines whether infection enters the building. Cleaning, sanitiser and ventilation all address transmission from somebody who is already present and already infectious. Nothing in a workplace prevents infection as effectively as an unwell person staying at home, and whether they do is decided by pay, workload, culture and how absence is treated not by public health advice on a poster.

4. How do sick pay arrangements affect infection control?
Directly. Where somebody loses income by staying at home, a proportion will come in regardless, particularly in lower-paid, part-time and casual work. Changes taking effect in April 2026 removed the waiting days and the lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay, so it is now payable from the first qualifying day of sickness. That removes a specific and well-documented reason people gave for attending while unwell, and it makes exclusion arrangements considerably more realistic.

5. What else discourages people from staying at home?
Absence trigger points that treat a short illness the same as a pattern of unreliability. Workloads that simply wait. Colleagues who will have to cover. Managers who praise attendance records. And the practical difficulty that in some roles nobody else can do the work. These are management arrangements rather than health matters, and each can be adjusted.

6. Why is ventilation described as a primary control?
Because for respiratory infections it addresses the mechanism directly. Smaller particles remain suspended and accumulate in enclosed spaces, so a room with poor fresh air supply concentrates whatever is being exhaled into it. Replacing indoor air with outdoor air dilutes and removes that, which is why ventilation sits alongside and frequently above surface cleaning in importance for respiratory infection.

7. How can I tell whether a room is well ventilated?
Occupants notice it before instruments do: stuffiness, stale air and drowsiness are reasonable indicators. More usefully, carbon dioxide concentration acts as a proxy, because people exhale it continuously so if it rises steadily through an occupied room, the fresh air supply is not keeping pace with occupancy, and anything else being exhaled is accumulating in the same way. Inexpensive monitors are widely available and give an immediate, visible measure.

8. What if windows do not open?
Then the mechanical system is doing the work, and the question is whether it is supplying outdoor air or recirculating what is already inside. Recirculating systems move air without replacing it, which distributes rather than dilutes. Practical responses include asking facilities to increase fresh air supply, reducing the number of people in the space, shortening the time spent in it, and using the space differently. Portable air cleaning units may help where ventilation genuinely cannot be improved, and they are not a substitute for fresh air.

9. Which surfaces matter most for cleaning?
The ones many hands touch. Door handles and push plates, light switches, stair rails, lift buttons, shared keyboards and phones, kettle and fridge handles, taps, toilet flushes, vending machines and card readers. Frequency on those surfaces achieves more than area coverage elsewhere cleaning a large floor thoroughly while a door handle goes untouched for a week is effort in the wrong place.

10. Is hand sanitiser enough?
It is useful and it is not a complete answer. Alcohol gel is effective against many organisms, convenient and better than nothing where washing facilities are distant which is why it improves compliance. Soap and water is required when hands are visibly soiled, after using the toilet, before handling food, and for organisms that alcohol does not destroy, including spore-forming bacteria and some viruses causing gastrointestinal illness. A workplace with a norovirus outbreak needs soap, water and time, not more gel.

11. What about shared kitchens, hot desks and equipment?
They are the workplace’s shared-contact points. Practical measures include cleaning surfaces and equipment between users, providing wipes at hot desks, avoiding shared crockery left unwashed, keeping fridges clean and dated, ensuring dishwashing is effective, and giving people somewhere to wash their hands before eating. Hot desking in particular removes the informal ownership that keeps a personal workspace clean.

12. What duties are owed to customers and visitors?
Employers have duties towards people who are not their employees but may be affected by their activities, which includes customers, visitors and contractors. In public-facing work retail, hospitality, transport, leisure, education this matters practically as well as legally, because staff have continuous contact with people whose health status is unknown and because an organisation’s arrangements affect everybody who enters.

13. What about clinically vulnerable employees?
They may need individual consideration: adjusted duties, changed location, improved ventilation in their work area, flexibility on remote working, or timing arrangements that reduce contact. Where a condition amounts to a disability, reasonable adjustment duties may apply. The practical approach is to ask the individual what would help rather than assuming, and to keep the discussion confidential.

14. How should a blood or body fluid spill be dealt with?
Using the organisation’s spill procedure and kit, not improvised materials. Broadly: keep people away, protect yourself with appropriate gloves and apron, absorb or contain the spill, apply the disinfectant provided for the correct contact time, clean the area, dispose of everything as contaminated waste, and wash hands thoroughly afterwards. Where the spill involves blood, additional precautions apply and any skin exposure or injury should be reported immediately.

15. How is a workplace outbreak recognised?
By noticing a pattern rather than individual cases. Several people from the same team, floor, shift or shared space reporting similar symptoms within a short period suggests transmission at work rather than coincidence. Absence data usually reveals this before anybody notices informally, and prompt recognition allows ventilation, cleaning and attendance measures to be increased before it spreads further.

16. Why does business continuity feature in an infection course?
Because a workplace outbreak is an operational problem as well as a health one. Simultaneous absence in a small team, a single person who is the only one able to perform a critical task, and the collapse of a service because five people are ill in the same week are business risks. Cross-training, documented procedures and identified cover reduce both the operational damage and the pressure on people to attend while unwell.

17. Should infection be in the workplace risk assessment?
Yes. Biological agents fall within the scope of substances hazardous to health, and the general duty to assess risks to employees and others covers infection where it arises from or is affected by work. In practice this means considering occupancy, ventilation, shared facilities, public contact, vulnerable individuals and the arrangements for people who become unwell.

18. Does this qualification make me an infection control specialist?
No. It provides practical knowledge for managing infection risk in an ordinary workplace. Clinical infection prevention, outbreak investigation and public health advice are specialist areas, and organisations should follow current public health guidance and take specialist advice where a significant outbreak occurs.

19. Does it replace organisational policy?
No. Every organisation has its own sickness policy, cleaning arrangements, spill procedures, reporting routes and continuity plans, and these must be learned locally. This Award provides the framework those arrangements rest on.

20. Who is this qualification aimed at?
Managers, supervisors, HR and facilities personnel, safety coordinators, customer-facing staff, education and transport staff, cleaning supervisors, first aiders, small business owners and employee representatives.

21. Are there any entry requirements?
No formal prerequisites are required. Learners should have a reasonable standard of English and be aged 16 or above.

22. How is the qualification assessed?
Through an online examination via the Britsafe Examination Management System, with a minimum pass mark of 70%.

23. What materials are provided with the course?
Learners receive digital (soft copy) course materials via the Britsafe learning management system. The course is delivered entirely online; there is no physical classroom attendance or physical course material.

24. What happens after I pass the exam?
Successful learners receive a certificate from Britsafe Qualifications UK Limited, featuring an anti-counterfeit hologram seal for authenticity. The certificate is available both as a physical copy and as a soft (digital) copy.

25. Is this qualification recognised internationally?
Yes. Britsafe Qualifications UK Limited delivers this qualification fully online to learners across the UK and internationally, though statutory duties, sick pay arrangements and public health guidance are national and should be checked locally.

26. Can this qualification lead to further study?
Yes. It provides a foundation for health and safety qualifications, facilities management study, business continuity training and the health and care infection prevention Award.