Road test: BII Pre-Entry Awareness Training
PEAT is a mandatory requirement for any new tenant or lessee who signs an agreement with a pub company or brewery that is a British Beer & Pub Association member.
Following feedback from industry, the BII conducted a review to ensure that the content is still fit for purpose. It aims to provide users with all the information they require in order for them to make a reasonable judgment and understand the complexities of the agreement they are signing up to.
The course has now been beefed up and is estimated to take between four and five hours to complete — up from the previous two hours.
The course is delivered by CPL Online, part of CPL Training Group, which signed a five-year deal with the BII in May covering existing qualifications and the development of new ones, taking in both face-to-face and e-learning.
What we liked
✓ The e-learning format provides users with instant access and flexibility to start and stop, meaning it can fit in with their schedule.
✓ It arms the prospective licensee with lots of considerations and questions to ensure they strike the right sort of deal with their chosen pubco.
✓ The pace of the course is good — and can be controlled by the user, who is also able to go back and forward through the course to recap.
✓ It clearly explains the pub trade glossary of phrases and acronyms that any newcomer might come across.
✓ It reiterates that the relationship between licensee and the BDM is important and key to establishing what is expected from them.
✓ It emphasises the importance of taking photos and keeping records and paperwork safe in case of disputes.
✓ The test at the end is useful in proving to the user
that they have learnt something and doesn’t try too hard to trick the person being tested.
✓ A certificate is instantly available to download when training is success-fully completed.
What we didn’t like
✗ The voiceover was labelled “annoying and unnecessary” by one of the PMA team. “Why is it necessary to have text read out in full? Couldn’t there be a summary of the text on each screen or no narration at all?”
✗ The female avatar — “She reminds me of the distracting and infuriating Microsoft Word for Windows animated paperclip ‘Clippy’,” said one team member. “It’s distracting as she grabs and plays with a number of props like notepads, textbooks and bags of money.”
✗ There is no meaningful full contents page — which would allow the user to go straight to the specific piece of information required.
✗ The section on finances is intimidating for those with little affinity for numbers.
✗ The pass threshold of the test is unclear with no option to find out which questions you had failed (if any).
Improvement ideas
- Make available printable summaries of each of the key sections for the user to be able to take into negotiations to act as an aide memoir
- There’s a lot of good information, but in its current format, it’s a long time staring at a screen absorbing information without interaction
- Questions could be asked after each module, rather than at the end
- Make available an online resource that provides links to useful information mentioned during the training
PEAT in a nutshell
The training covers 13 modules:
■ The pub industry
■ Business plans
■ Pub premises
■ Purchasing obligations
■ Licensing and compliance
■ Rent assessment, review and renewals
■ Finances
■ Business support
■ How to leave your pub
■ Complaints and dispute resolution
■ Good advice
■ The agreement
■ Legal status of the UK Pub Industry Framework Code
Pass requirements: To complete PEAT, learners need to pass a multiple-choice test which covers a range of topics from the course (the pass mark is 18 out of 20). Cost: £75+VAT.
