Published: 14th MAY 2019

Active travel training for workplaces in Scotland

Funded by Transport Scotland, there are many training opportunities available to help increase active and sustainable travel in your workplace.

Selfie of Sustrans volunteer, Gordon, with a group of colleagues wearing helmets and posing with their bicycles

Please note that the Scottish Workplaces project is currently on hold.

Active Travel Champion Training

Our Workplace Active Travel Champions programme supports a network of volunteers who help people in their workplace to be more active through walking or cycling as part of their everyday journeys.

Champions are supported with training on running events and giving travel advice, resources, and guidance from a full-time Active Travel Champions Project Officer based in our Edinburgh office.

Find out more about the Active Travel Champions  programme

Mapping with OpenStreetMaps

Lack of knowledge of local routes can be a significant obstacle to those who might otherwise consider walking or cycling to work. As part of the Active Travel Champions project, we offer periodic training courses in OpenStreetMaps – an easy-to-use, open-source digital map, which you can use to create customised maps of the approaches to your workplace.

Promoting walking in the workplace

Paths for All offers a range of training options for those who wish to promote walking in their workplace. This includes a day long course for staff involved in improving the health and wellbeing of their workforce. They also offer training for those interested in leading walks in and around the workplace, which can help to build activity into the working day.

Promoting cycling amongst colleagues

We also coordinate cycle training sessions through our Active Travel Champions project, but it is possible to book courses directly from Cycling Scotland. Two key courses that may be of interested are detailed below.

  • Essential Cycling Skills: Often, people would like to cycle more, but lack confidence or experience, or have been out of the saddle for a number of years. If some of your colleagues fall into this category, then it might be worth looking into the Essential Cycling Skills courses offered by Cycling Scotland. The training cover subjects such as bike handling skills, confidence on-road, and roadside repair.
  • Cycle Ride Leader: As with led walks, running a led cycle can be a great way to build activity into the working day. It also offers the opportunity for less experienced cyclists to gain confidence cycling on the road, and build up their knowledge of local routes. Cycle Ride Leader training, also provided by Cycling Scotland, provides the skills required to lead safe, risk-assessed rides for groups of cyclists.

Energy Efficient Driving

For some people, a degree of reliance on cars – either for commuting or during the working day – is unavoidable. However, training on energy-efficient driving offered by the Energy Saving Trust could help you to reduce your organisation’s impacts and fuel costs.

For more information on any of these training courses, please follow the links.

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