DSE training online in the UK: set up your screen, chair and desk properly

What employers look for in an online DSE certificate

Your employer decides the training your workplace needs, based on its own risk assessment and the DSE workstation assessments it carries out. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require employers to give screen users adequate health and safety training in the use of their workstation. When you complete DSE training, a good certificate shows four things.

1. The course and the hours. The certificate should name the course and the hours of learning, so it can sit in your training record or CPD log.
2. A date and a way to check it. A completion date, a unique certificate number and a verification link let your employer confirm it.
3. Content that follows UK law and HSE guidance. The course should be written around the DSE Regulations 1992 and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and cover what HSE explains about workstation assessments, breaks and eye tests.
4. A refresh date. A recommended refresh-by date helps you and your employer plan the next update, and training should also be repeated when a workstation is substantially modified.

The Lift College certificate does each of these. It records that you completed Display Screen Equipment (DSE) Training with Lift College, shows 2 hours of learning, your completion date and a recommended refresh date 3 years later, and carries a unique certificate number and verification link. The course also prepares you for your workstation assessment.

What the Lift College course covers

The course has 5 short modules, each with a knowledge check, then a multiple-choice final test. You need 80% to pass, with unlimited free retakes.

1. Screens and your health. The aches, fatigue and eye strain poor set-up can cause, and why prevention is simple.
2. Setting up your workstation. Screen height and distance, chair and back support, keyboard and mouse position, and posture.
3. Laptops, hot-desks and home working. Using a separate keyboard, mouse and laptop riser, and adjusting a shared or home workstation.
4. Breaks and changes of activity. Why short breaks often beat longer ones less often, and ways to move and change posture.
5. Assessments, eye tests and the law. How workstation assessments work, your right to an eye test, and how to report problems.

By the end you can explain the health risks linked to display screen work, set up your chair, screen, keyboard and mouse correctly, adapt your set-up for laptops, hot-desking and working from home, plan short, frequent breaks, take part in a workstation assessment and know when to ask your employer for an eye test.

The law and guidance it is written around

• Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992. Employers must give users adequate health and safety training in the use of their workstation, including when it is substantially modified (regulation 6, "Provision of training").
• HSE: Working safely with display screen equipment. HSE explains that employers must "do a DSE workstation assessment", reduce risks "including making sure workers take breaks from DSE work or do something different", "provide an eye test if a worker asks for one" and "provide training and information for workers". HSE lists home workers among the users the law applies to.
• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 7. Employees must take reasonable care of their own health and safety and co-operate with their employer.

How Lift College compares with other online DSE courses

Prices and details below are taken from each provider's own course page, checked 11 October 2026. Lift College is not VAT registered, so no VAT is added to £19.99.

Who it suits

DSE Training suits you if you:

• work at a computer for much of your day
• work from home or split time between home and office
• hot-desk or use a laptop as your main computer
• have been asked to complete a DSE workstation assessment
• get neck, back or wrist aches or tired eyes at your desk

HSE explains that the regulations cover workers who use DSE daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more. DSE Training sits in the health and safety courses alongside fire safety, manual handling and more. For broader workplace safety, see our guide to health and safety training online, and if your role involves lifting as well as desk work, our manual handling training guide. Every course in the Lift College CPD catalogue is £19.99.

What you get for £19.99

• One payment for one learner, no subscription and nothing added at checkout.
• Access for as long as Lift College offers the course, and never less than 3 years from purchase.
• A free refresher when your recommended refresh date arrives. Lift emails you 30 days before.
• 14-day money back: ask within 14 days of paying for a full refund.
• Open to learners aged 16 or over. Buying for a team? Ask about team enrolment.

Start DSE Training for £19.99.