SPONSORS OF COMPETENCY TRAINING FEATURE
THE IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDISATION IN COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING
Within any sphere of work it is good to know that people around you are able to do their jobs and know how to avoid getting themselves into bad situations, but even if they find themselves in one, they know how to get themselves and others out of it safely.
It is good to know that as a worker you can go to other employers and other areas of the country or the industry and take your certificates of training with you, where they are fully understood and accepted by everyone else.
These 2 paragraphs are commonly understood facts, things that companies, workers and ordinary members of the public would see as pre-eminent truths. So why does the wind industry in particular make something as fundamental as this so hard to achieve?
TRAINING STANDARDS In far too many cases the training acceptable to Company A is not approved by Company B, so the individual has to do it again. The result is that the trainee concerned is at best not fully engaged with the training, and at worst is actively disruptive and doesn’t listen to the messages being put across.
Why? Because they feel they have done it all before – which they often have.
Everyone accepts that this repetition has to apply to many aspects of technical training – Company A products are different from Company B, and one has to understand those differences, be they obvious or more subtle.
THE BASICS That is not the area of concern here, it is to do with much more basic training than that e.g...
• Emergency response • Work in confined spaces • Firefighting • Turbine transfers at sea • Risk assessment • Working at heights etc...
None of the above are subject to standards which are ‘accepted across the industry.
Some employers cite local requirements, others say their own company courses can only apply, some have even said that country or cultural differences are to blame, but the end result is the same..... excessive costs, confused staff, and time lost.
It is proven by many other industries, including synergous areas like offshore oil and gas, that insisting on local or company based training in the belief that businesses retain staff is erroneous. In fact the opposite is true, so it can’t be that.
Businesses do not like to think of themselves as NIMBYs, where they want everything invented here, so it isn’t that.
So what is the real reason? Is it costs, is it short term thinking? Is it protectionism, either for IP or regional difference reasons? Or is it simply a belief that businesses can gain a commercial advantage?
WHATEVER IT IS IT IS WE NEED TO STOP IT BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF HAND. This is already causing a slowdown in our skilled labour transfer from other industries – essential if we are to maintain any pace of growth. People who join the industry are leaving again too quickly as they are disillusioned, feel under rewarded and confused.
But above all we need to reduce costs, and that is exactly what having basic Emergency Response standards that everyone accepts, will do.
Michael Wilder Petans
www.petans.co.uk
e = See enhanced entry online
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
79
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148