Businesses from across the borough got the chance to hone their first aid skills at a special training day on Wednesday.

Run by Dagenham-based Athena training and hosted by the Barking and Dagenham Chamber of Commerce at their Rainham Road South headquarters, the day-long course helped to equip employees and employers alike with skills in emergency response.

Much of the training given is legally-required in some industries and Chamber secretary Mary Clements hopes to repeat the course for other companies on a few more occasions throughout the year.

“For those that attended it was a very successful that covered emergency first aid training, so it was very in-depth – perhaps more so than other similar courses,” she said.

“First aid training is something businesses – retailers especially – have to keep up-to-date with and doing it through the chamber is probably a cost-effective option for many local companies.”

Email mary@bdchamber.co.uk for more information about future courses.