SPONSORS OF COMPETENCY TRAINING FEATURE
THE NEED FOR EFFECTIVE TRAINING COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING
As we enter a period of rapid growth, the wind energy industry and providers are gearing up to meet the associated training requirements. significant time and money will be invested in the expanding workforce and all would agree that training has to be effective.
It is essential that construction, operation and maintenance activities are carried out safely, efficiently and to a high standard. How can we ensure that training contributes to that goal? Let us consider some of the key features of competency- based training to see the advantages that this approach offers.
COMPETENCE Competence is the ability to perform an occupation-related activity to the standards expected in employment. It is normally understood to be a combination of skills, knowledge and experience.
INDUSTRY LED COVERING A RANGE OF TASKS
It follows that the first feature of competency-based training is that it must be industry-led. The learning objectives must be clearly defined by the industry in terms of exactly what the individuals need to be able to do.
It is also necessary to consider the full range of tasks, covering not just normal situations, bit also planned abnormal situations and unplanned abnormal situations.
Competency-based Training is Proven in the Chemicals Sector
PRACTICAL SKILLS AS WELL AS KNOWLEDGE Secondly, competency-based training is practical because it involves skills as well as knowledge. This requires access to suitable facilities – as authentic as possible but in a safe, controlled environment, suitable for training inexperienced people and developing competence.
ASSESSMENT Thirdly, competency-based training involves assessment in order to check that individuals are able to perform a particular task, that they can apply the knowledge and skills learnt safely and successfully. It may be necessary to assess competence at intervals – for example, before training, immediately on completion, and periodically thereafter.
Again this has implications for training facilities since meaningful assessment must involve observing a person’s performance in the application of skill and knowledge to a particular task in a real- world activity under real-world conditions (so far as possible).
STANDARDS Fourthly, competency-based training is linked to clear performance standards and assessment criteria. This necessitates careful task analysis and a clear definition of how the job should be done.
COMPREHENSIVE COMPETENCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Finally, competency-based training should be seen as one element within a comprehensive competence management system. A good system will ensure that critical tasks and performance standards are identified, that suitable training takes place with assessment, that individuals are authorised at key stages to carry out
tasks based on competence and that competence levels are maintained over time.
It is clear that this approach is focused on the outcome of a training intervention, including recording of evidence to demonstrate an individual’s ability.
The course content and delivery method must be designed with this end in mind and that requires close collaboration between the industry and providers.
IN SUMMARY Competency-based training – which has made a positive contribution to the processing and chemical industries – is very well suited to the demands of the wind energy industry. It will enable the industry to develop comprehensive and rigorous training in partnership with providers and, as a result, to deploy people with confidence in demanding conditions.
Clive Rounce CATCH (Centre for the Assessment of Technical Competence)
www.catch-uk.org
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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