Edition 17, August-September 2003

Licensing line national project - update

The last edition of Licensing line news provided an update on the work of the Transition Working Group in examining risks and strategies to integrate occupational health and safety licensing requirements into the vocational education and training sector. The Transition Working Group will consider a draft of the report at the September meeting to enable broad stakeholder consultation to be undertaken during November.

Accordingly the report is expected to be released for stakeholder feedback from 1 November 2003 to 30 November 2003. Stakeholder feedback together with input from a number of key safety and training forums will influence the final report to be presented to the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, Australian National Training Authority, state training authorities and occupational health and safety authorities.

The key risk areas identified in the report revolve around competency standards, assessment process and occupational health and safety legislative issues. Some of the key issues identified for discussion include:

  • team based assessment not considered appropriate for these high risk areas (individuals need to be assessed personally);
  • integration of National Occupational Health and Safety Commission developed assessment instrument into training packages;
  • inclusion of national occupational health and safety competency standards developed in a suitable format within training packages;
  • assessor qualification requirements of regulators being incorporated into training packages;
  • registered training organisations access to appropriate equipment;
  • involvement of occupational health and safety authorities within the audit process.

The final model and process adopted will be influenced by a range of policy issues. Training and safety authorities and key stakeholders have been working collaboratively to develop a model to transition the NOHSC:7019 National Guidelines for Occupational Health and Safety Competency Standards for the Operation of Loadshifting Equipment and Other Types of Equipment to the vocational education and training sector's training packages.

A number of high level meetings have influenced the development of a suitable model to enable the transition of NOHSC:7019 to the vocational education system. The report identifies a number of pathways to transition occupational health and safety competencies into the vocational education and training sector and discusses the risks associated that need to be addressed in the transition process.

One short term option that is being considered involves incorporating the regulatory generic standards within an accredited course by 1 January 2004 thereby providing the opportunity and flexibility for training packages to be amended to reflect the regulatory requirements. The occupational health and safety authorities would then have the flexibility to recognise a number of pathways provided that they all meet the same minimum regulatory requirements and provide a basis for improved pathways for operator certification.

Further discussions are to occur between identified national industry training advisory bodies or industry skills councils (as they are declared) and occupational health and safety authorities to recommend a training package pathway that meets the needs of stakeholders.

November has been set aside for broad stakeholder consultation and readers are encouraged to pre-register their interest in attending a session that will be held in each capital city. If you have already registered your interest in attending one of the presentations you will be notified in due course, however if you have not registered and are interested in being informed of the dates of the information sessions, please contact Robyn Porter on 07 3238 3497 or email robyn.porter@det.qld.gov.au

Input sought on draft units of competency addressing NOHSC:1006 (2001)

Thank you to everybody who provided comments on the vocational education and training formatted units of competency

The units of competency have been amended to incorporate these comments and where appropriate a version two is available on the Internet for downloading from www.training.qld.gov.au/trainingpackages/licenceissue.htm

The date for comments on these units has been extended to 30 November 2003.

If you have any comments please contact Peter Eickenloff on 07 3237 1427 or email peter.eickenloff@det.qld.gov.au or contact Robyn Porter on 07 3238 3497 or email robyn.porter@det.qld.gov.au

 

This page was generated on 26 August, 2009