Charter Commitment #8

TRAINING

This commitment is for all stakeholders, from directors down to the person on a shovel, receiving appropriate health and safety training. This should start prior to work commencing and continue as their individual roles and health and safety practices evolve.

The overriding principle is that everyone is responsible for health and safety, and all need to be trained in safe work methodology, risk assessment, risk management, critical risks, and promoting positive safety behavior and culture. It is also important to understand that the people doing the work, who face the greatest risk, should also have the greatest voice during worker participation and engagement.

The other important issue is that a basic health and safety pre-qualification does not guarantee competence in any specific activity. All people on a site need to understand the site-specific safety risks, and all roles require a task competency requirement before commencing any task.

Training is only effective if there is a corresponding assessment regime and training record matrix. Those not yet competent to work alone must be actively supervised until such time as competency can be demonstrated.

Health and safety training must be a process of continuous improvement, both individually and at an organizational level.  Training methodology should also evolve to ensure that the specific needs of the trainees is being met. Diversity in people, cultures, and learning styles need to be accommodated to ensure that training is fit for purpose. Organisations which invest in training see a return in many areas, including safety and wellbeing and productivity.