APPROPRIATE Training in the mining industry is essential to safety as well as efficiency and profitability.
SkillsDMC has developed Australia’s first rationalised Training Package for the resources and infrastructure industry to increase the portability and recognition of skills across all five sectors. The package will provide employers with a new structure to efficiently recruit and train staff Australia-wide.
National Industry Skills Council, SkillsDMC, has received National Quality Council endorsement for the new Training Package, RII09. The result of a three-year project, the package will impact over half a million industry employees and thousands of companies across the country.
The consolidation of five sector Training Packages into one, has created a new national competency recognition system. This will allow employers to more easily identify candidate skills that are relevant to their operations across the coal mining, civil infrastructure, construction materials, drilling and metalliferous sectors.
Dorothy Rao, Operations Manager for SkillsDMC says that the decision to consolidate the five Training Packages comes from industry demand and Government calls to increase recognition and reduce duplication of competencies within the sectors. This isn’t change for change’s sake, it’s change for the better.
Rao claims the move will make it easier for employers to recognise industry skills and qualifications that match the company’s needs. This will reduce the need for expensive and unnecessary retraining, and improve the recruitment and selection process.
In consultation with industry, SkillsDMC reviewed over 1200 competencies and 106 qualifications. The analysis identified skills that were common to all five sectors and those specific to a particular sector. The number of competencies was reduced by 25 per cent and qualifications by 43 per cent; removing duplication and streamlining training for the industry.
Rao says some roles are only specific to one sector such as a coal mining long wall operator. However, with industry drawing from the same skills pool, substantial competencies can be recognised and transferred across all five sectors.
For example, a mobile plant operator working on a construction site in Victoria wants to move to a mining site in Western Australia. The candidate’s future employer can only review past experience and qualifications with no way to verify competency or on-the-job performance.
Rao claims this new, whole-of-industry approach will ensure skills and competencies can be recognised across each state and territory and across all five sectors; from civil infrastructure to quarrying.
The RII09 Training Package will be rolled-out to industry from August 2009, with implementation over a 12-month transition period. Organisations can contact their state SkillsDMC industry skills advisor for assistance with the new package. For more information go to www.skillsdmc.com.au
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