Dräger: compliance vs. competence

Due to the hazardous nature of the oil and gas industry, health and safety within the sector is always a priority. Dräger Marine & Offshore’s training commercial manager, Rachel Gater, looks at the compliance versus competence debate.

With the rise of the e-learning sector, the question over whether a worker is ‘competent’ or simply ‘compliant’ to do their job is open to debate.

In my view, competency is observable knowledge, skills and attitude, whereas compliance is a legal requirement where boxes must be ticked.

Competencies go above and beyond compliances. For example, a permit to work inside a confined space offshore would be a compliance, but having the knowledge, skills and experience of carrying out that task day after day would be what makes you competent.

Perhaps, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), offers one of the best definitions of competence in health and safety in the oil and gas industry: ‘To be competent, an organisation or individual must have sufficient knowledge of the tasks to be undertaken and the risks involved. They must have the experience to carry out their duties in relation to the project, recognise their limitations and take appropriate action to prevent harm to those carrying out work, or those affected by the work.’

While ‘Step Change in Safety’ also offers a more oil and gas-specific definition: The ability of every director, manager and worker to recognise the risks in their operational activities and then apply the right measures to control and manage those risks.’

At Dräger, we are an OPITO-approved centre for Authorised Gas Testing and H2S training and actively measure competency in order for an organisation to identify any gaps or weaknesses and act on these. This allows a company to build on its strengths, which can improve business performance, while it also increases employee engagement and retention. After all, a competent workforce increases profitability.

We can monitor competence levels by monitoring an employee’s formal training and can do on-the-job evaluations providing regular, ongoing assessments. From Dräger’s point of view, health and safety will always be an ongoing process.

E-learning for offshore

In the current economic environment, E-learning certainly has flexibility, it’s green and on the surface, it’s cost-efficient. However, while it is a good supporting tool, it can never replace face-to-face training, which engages employees more and measures competency more efficiently.

Just because an employee takes a course and is deemed competent by the training instructor, doesn’t mean that’s the end and they’re completely competent in the field. You need to aim higher if you want to be skilled in that particular field and working on competencies daily in the workplace cannot be stressed enough.

Being compliant maintains safety and skills, but it doesn’t improve them. A worker needs to have a combination of both competence and compliance training to improve and maintain safety and skills.

For example, you’re about to embark on an offshore gas-testing course where you will be monitored. You might have an understanding of the course which shows you are compliant in how to use a Permit To Work system, but it’s not until you actually go offshore and do it in your job on your own, without supervision, that competence kicks in.

A certificate may prove learning ability, but these learned skills have to be used and analysed in practice in order to achieve competency. Many Dräger courses are competency-based. For example, our BA breather and maintenance and gas detection courses are focused on performance to ensure employees can go out and do their job safely in their field, or whatever their specialist role is.

Our ongoing assessment programmes are carried out every two to three months. You can’t say just because a person shows great competency that you won’t audit them. It’s always good to sit down and review a person no matter what level they are to ensure they are still working according to the standards.

Refreshers and updates

The oil and gas industry is under constant change and therefore refreshers, knowledge and updates should move with those changes. Just because a worker has gone away with a certificate, doesn’t mean they are qualified for the foreseeable future. Our courses usually have a two-year validity process on them, so delegates will come back and refresh their knowledge and learn even more information.

Skills crisis

Equipment changes and so do colleagues. With an ageing workforce, a lot of knowledge and skills has been lost, therefore competence levels will be affected when the guy with 30 years’ experience suddenly retires and their replacement is new to the industry. We must all invest in our people, move with the times and keep knowledge up-to-date and relevant.

We need to share knowledge across the oil and gas industry openly. We need to inform and educate our younger generation about the consequences of incidents such as Piper Alpha. We have too many lives in our hands to ever be complacement where competence and compliance are concerned and everyone in industry needs to remember that.

For example, someone wearing a BA set for the first time may not like having that mask on their face. If they panic, pull that mask off and take a breath full of that toxic air, it will kill them. They may have shown compliance on the course, but gaining the competence in using the set and knowing what it does all takes time.

At Dräger, we can offer training at any location, including bespoke training offshore for Face Fit Testing and BA User and work closely on training solutions with our four North Sea countries; the UK, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. We have a range of products that we offer from gas detection through to safety masks, BA equipment to Alcotests.

If someone was to take one of our confined space leg entry courses, from a compliance point of view, they will have an assessment sheet that they have to adhere to. But the compentency part comes from doing the job offshore. Competency in this area has to be continuously monitored because over time a worker’s health can deteriorate.

One thing’s for certain, the importance of measuring competence in the oil and gas industry is still as important today as it has always been.

Dräger has a wide product range and provides sales, rental and training services in Aberdeen. The company prides itself on offering tailored training solutions for its customers, as well as providing OPITO approved courses, such as H2S and Authorised Gas Tester to BA Care & Maintenance and Gas Detection Use And Calibration.

From July, we will also have a range of courses available for customers at various locations across the world. These will include Confined Space Entry, Confined Space Entry and Rescue, Basic H2S (OPITO), AGT Level 1,2+3 (OPITO) Including E- Learning OPITO approved AGT, BA Care and Maintenance, BA User, Face Fit with Fit 2 Fit accreditation and Leg Entry”.

For all training enquiries, contact 01224 701569, or to find out more about Dräger in the UK, visit the website.

Edited from source by Elizabeth Corner

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/special-reports/12052015/drager-compliance-vs-competence/