Kaye Tyter, ForestWorks
Skills verification is essential in forestry and broader industries as it validates and confirms an individual’s required knowledge, experience, and proficiencies, as they pertain to a specific role or job function. Skill verification matters because it serves as a safeguard against potential mismatches between an individual’s professed abilities and their actual competencies. Source: Kaye Tyter, Training and Skills Specialist Manager, ForestWorks
The skill verification process may include:
- Assessing existing skills and knowledge of workers who have previously completed a unit of competency, a module, or mandatory training (such as a work licence, industry ticket, or induction white card) and now require reassessment to confirm their current competency to ensure they are still competent in a specific role or work task. This is known as recognition of current competency or verification of currency.
- Assessing and acknowledging skills and knowledge acquired through prior informal or formal training, workplace experience, or other activities, known as recognition of prior learning. This can lead to credit in a subject or module and may result in obtaining a full qualification.
The verification process involves assessing (verifying) the worker’s skills and knowledge against established benchmarks, such as units of competency, work instructions, standard operating procedures (SOPs) regulations or codes of practice.
The individual conducting the verification must have a clear understanding of the job function for which the skills are being assessed and adhere to the principles of objective assessment and evidence-based decision-making. These conditions are essential to ensure that the assessment process measures a candidate’s proficiency accurately.
This individual may be a qualified trainer or assessor or a suitably qualified workplace supervisor participating in the assessment process under a supervision arrangement with a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). In this arrangement, the workplace supervisor assists the trainer or assessor in conducting the verification.
Importance of Skills Verification
Verification of skills is essential for workplace safety and compliance with health and safety regulations. By verifying worker’s competencies, employers can confirm their skills and knowledge, identify areas of improvement, and ensure role suitability. This process allows workers to demonstrate their skills, enables employers to assign tasks confidently, and ensures skill validation by qualified individuals through RTOs.
The transfer and application of skills across different settings are fundamental to Australia’s training system and economy, depending on the recognition and verification of competencies. However, the potential of these skills to be applied in various workplaces is often overlooked until formally acknowledged. Failure to recognise, record, and capture these skills results in significant financial and time losses due to unnecessary retraining.
Skills verification is an indispensable and multifaceted process, playing a critical role in ensuring workplace safety, legal compliance, workers’ competence, and the mobility of skilled workers across different settings, including related industries, especially in scenarios involving large-scale redundancies. For more information or inquiries about the skills verification process, contact your local RTO.
Skills verification arise in various scenarios, such as when an individual seeks recognition of prior learning for a qualification or applies for a job that requires specific skills. It may also be prompted by events such as forced redundancy observed across industries, including the native forestry sector more recently. Additionally, skill verification helps employers comply with the Work Health and Safety and Occupational Health and Safety Acts, which mandate responsibilities for workers to be trained and competent in performing their work duties.
Here are some scenarios of where skills verification is applied:
Scenario 1: Within the Country Fire Authority (CFA) structure, operational members must demonstrate their proficiency in basic skills annually. This process, known as skills maintenance, requires members to show their training officer that they can still perform their essential tasks. This ensures they remain competent and ready to respond effectively in emergency situations.
Scenario 2: A worker who has been operating an excavator on a worksite for several years may decide to change jobs. To prove competency to the new employer, the worker undergoes an assessment process. An assessor evaluates the worker’s skills and, if deemed proficient, issues a Statement of Attainment for operating an excavator. This formal recognition allows the worker to demonstrate their vocational qualifications to potential employers.
Scenario 3: Consider a scenario where a forklift operator at a manufacturing plant undergoes skills verification following an incident, ensuring their continued safety and competence in operating the forklift, even though their WorkSafe High Risk Licence remains in place.
“John works in a large manufacturing plant, operating a forklift. The workplace has numerous instructions and procedures, including those related to forklift movement and pedestrian safety. Yellow lines mark pedestrian exclusion zones, and there are designated loading and safe zones for drivers.
One morning, while loading a truck, a pedestrian unexpectedly crossed John’s path. In avoiding the pedestrian, John collided with a barrier, damaging both the forklift and the barrier.
The workplace policy requires recording and investigating any forklift accidents. The investigation concluded that John was not at fault, as he was evading a pedestrian. However, due to the incident, policy dictates that John must undergo a skills verification to ensure ongoing competence.”
Understanding employee competence is essential for ensuring they can perform their roles safely and effectively. Competence, acquired from completing an accredited training program and assessment, reflects the individual’s demonstrated ability at a specific time. It is important to acknowledge that competence can evolve or degrade over time.
It’s essential to recognise these stages to effectively assess and develop an employee’s abilities, ensuring they meet the performance and safety requirements of their role.
