Courses(s)
The Lyme Disease Awareness Course Online is designed for anyone who works outdoors or in environments where ticks may be present. This includes construction workers, landscapers, agricultural staff, forestry workers, park rangers, ground maintenance teams, and outdoor maintenance personnel.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected tick. In the UK, cases are increasing, particularly in rural and grassy areas. While early diagnosis and treatment usually lead to a full recovery, delayed treatment can result in serious and long-term health complications.
One of the key challenges is that many people do not remember being bitten, and awareness of symptoms, prevention methods, and treatment options remains low. This course helps bridge that gap by providing clear, practical guidance to improve awareness and reduce risk.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted through the bite of an infected tick, commonly found in grassy, wooded, and rural environments. If not diagnosed and treated early, it can develop into serious long-term health conditions, including fatigue, joint pain, neurological complications, and heart-related issues.
Individuals most at risk are those who spend extended time outdoors in areas where ticks are present. This includes construction workers, agricultural staff, forestry workers, landscapers, grounds maintenance teams, environmental workers, as well as hikers and dog walkers.
For employers, Lyme disease awareness training is essential for managing workplace health risks. It helps staff recognise the dangers of tick exposure and understand how to reduce the risk of infection. It also strengthens workplace safety by improving knowledge of prevention methods, early symptom detection, and safe working practices.
By completing this course, both employers and individuals can take practical steps to reduce risk, improve awareness, and protect long-term health.
In the UK, employers have a legal duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated regulations to protect employees from foreseeable workplace risks, including exposure to biological hazards such as ticks.
Where employees work outdoors, employers must carry out suitable risk assessments and provide adequate information, instruction, and training. This includes raising awareness of tick bites, how to prevent exposure, and how to recognise early symptoms of Lyme disease.
Failure to manage these risks can lead to enforcement action, compensation claims, and reputational damage. Providing Lyme disease awareness training helps organisations meet their legal obligations while ensuring employee safety and wellbeing.
This course provides practical, easy-to-understand training on Lyme disease, including how it is transmitted and where ticks are commonly found. Learners will gain a clear understanding of high-risk environments and how to recognise situations where exposure is more likely.
The training explains how to reduce the risk of tick bites through safe working practices and protective measures. It also covers early signs and symptoms of Lyme disease, why early treatment is important, and what actions to take if a tick bite is suspected.
By the end of the course, learners will have the confidence to identify risks, respond appropriately, and apply safe practices while working outdoors.
This course is designed for anyone who works outdoors or in environments where tick exposure is possible. It is especially relevant for construction workers, farmers, forestry staff, landscapers, grounds maintenance teams, and environmental or conservation workers.
It is also suitable for supervisors and managers responsible for health and safety in outdoor workplaces. Whether new to the role or refreshing existing knowledge, this training ensures learners understand the risks and how to manage them effectively.
The Lyme Disease Awareness course is delivered 100% online and is CPD accredited, ensuring high-quality and recognised professional training.
Learners can complete the course at their own pace, making it flexible and easy to fit around work schedules. The training is accessible on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, allowing users to learn anytime and anywhere while gaining practical, workplace-relevant knowledge.
On successful completion, learners receive a digital Lyme Disease Awareness certificate that demonstrates understanding of tick awareness, prevention strategies, and safe working practices in outdoor environments.
Certificates can be downloaded, shared, and securely stored within the Echo3 platform, making it easy to maintain training records and demonstrate compliance during audits or inspections.
Echo3 provides a simple and efficient way for organisations to manage workplace training. Through an intuitive dashboard, employers can enrol learners quickly, track progress in real time, and maintain accurate compliance records.
Automated reminders help ensure training remains up to date, while downloadable reports make audits and inspections straightforward. This course can also be combined with other safety training such as Lone Working, Health and Safety Awareness, and Defensive Driving to build a complete workplace safety programme.
All courses are available through Echo3 Training Credits, making training scalable, cost-effective, and easy to manage across teams.
While anyone who works in green spaces outdoors can encounter ticks, groups at higher risk include:
Lyme disease – also known as Lyme borreliosis – is a bacterial infection which can be passed to humans by the bite of an infected tick.
Early diagnosis and adequate antibiotic treatment are very important. Most people go on to make a full recovery. But if left untreated – or if treatment is unsuccessful – Lyme disease can cause serious long-term health problems.
The true figure is hard to know because so many cases go undiagnosed or unreported. But what is certain is that cases are on the increase.
In the UK, it was previously thought there were between two and three thousand new cases annually, but the true figure is now thought to be in the range of eight to ten thousand, with Scotland accounting for more than a quarter of all cases. The incidence in many European countries is even higher than the UK, and the estimated incidence in the USA is around 500,000 cases per year.
You can catch Lyme disease at any time of year, although this is most common in spring and summer.
Ticks are small blood-sucking parasites. They are not insects but arachnids, related to the spider family. There are around twenty different species of tick found in the UK, each with its own preference of animal host from which to feed.
The tick most likely to bite humans is the sheep tick – Ixodes ricinus – also known as the deer tick, sheep tick or castor bean tick.
A Lyme Disease Awareness course is an online training programme that teaches how Lyme disease is transmitted through tick bites, how to recognise high-risk environments, and how to prevent infection. It is designed to improve understanding of symptoms, promote safe working practices for people who work outdoors, and support employers in meeting their health and safety responsibilities.
Early symptoms can include a circular rash, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, headaches, muscle and joint pain. If left untreated, symptoms may progress to more serious neurological, heart, and joint-related complications.
Lyme disease can be reduced by avoiding tick bites. This includes wearing protective clothing, checking skin and clothing after outdoor work, using insect repellent, and removing ticks quickly and safely if found.
While the training itself is not always mandatory, UK health and safety law requires employers to protect workers from foreseeable risks. This includes assessing outdoor risks and providing suitable training and information where tick exposure is possible.
People most at risk are those who spend time outdoors in areas where ticks are common. This includes construction workers, farmers, forestry staff, landscapers, grounds maintenance workers, environmental workers, hikers, and dog walkers.
Ticks need moist air to survive, and so live in areas with moderate to high levels of rainfall, and among vegetation which can retain a high level of humidity such as tall grass or leaf litter.
Habitats include grassy or forested places such as woodland, heathland, moorland or rough pasture, but even suburban parks and domestic gardens.
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a viral infection that affects the central nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal cord. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks. While many people experience mild or no symptoms, TBE can, in some cases, lead to severe neurological complications, including inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
People should protect against tick bites in the usual ways, as there is no antiviral treatment against Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE).
Yes, the course is fully online and can be completed at your own pace. It is accessible on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, making it flexible for both individuals and teams.
Yes, learners receive a digital Lyme Disease Awareness certificate upon completion. The certificate can be downloaded, shared, and used as proof of training for work or compliance purposes.
This Lyme Disease Awareness course was developed in partnership with subject matter experts from Lyme Resource Centre (LRC), one of the UK’s leading Lyme disease charities, for whose input and assistance we are sincerely grateful. LRC receive a percentage of sales revenue from the course.
Thank you also to the other organisations who helped, including Lyme Disease Action, LDUK (Lyme Disease UK) and the University of Bristol.
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