This is the New Zealand Mining Board of Examiners November meeting newsletter.

The Board Chair acknowledges the contribution that the six departing Board members have made to the Board and to the extractives industry in general: Stephen Bell, Michelle Crompton, Steve Ellis, Craig Smith, John St George and Ray Urquhart.

The Board has completed its review of feedback about the CoC requirements. It is close to finalising recommendations to the WorkSafe Board, which has responsibility for setting CoC requirements. It is expected the WorkSafe Board will make its decision in the first quarter of 2018 and a New Zealand Gazette notice setting out the new requirements will be published soon after. We will be able to give you more detailed information on timing in January.

We plan to hold meetings throughout New Zealand to inform industry about the new requirements.

Much of the CoC requirements consultation feedback focused on workforce development and a national qualifications framework which would support people’s career path and professional development. 

We are pleased to see so much thought has been given by industry as to how to develop its people.

We support and encourage such initiatives by industry. However, it is important to understand the Mining Board of Examiners is not responsible for national qualifications or career and workforce development. For example, lack of uptake to study for formal qualifications is an issue for industry to address.

It is important that everyone is clear about who is responsible for what.

Certificates of Competence (CoCs)

The focus of CoCs is on health and safety and statutory requirements.  A CoC is not a qualification or a formal pathway to develop staff.

A CoC shows that the holder of a safety critical role has the relevant knowledge, experience, skill and character to carry out the tasks associated with this important statutory position.

We have a very clear statutory role and members are specifically appointed on the basis of their knowledge and experience in the extractives’ industry:

• to advise us on competency requirements
• to examine applicants or have applicants examined for CoCs
• to issue, renew, cancel and suspend CoCs
• carry out any other functions relating to training and competency which are conferred on the Board by regulations.

We set CoC requirements based on the safety critical roles’ regulatory requirements.

Qualifications

The national qualification system is administered by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). MITO, as the extractives industry’s ITO (Industries Training Organisation), is responsible for working with industry to define skill standards and develop qualifications required by industry.

We work closely with MITO and would like industry to develop a workforce focused not only on current issues but also on future needs.

This would mean that, rather than being driven by minimum requirements which mirror CoC requirements, the focus as many of the submissions mentioned would be on career progression and the overall skills required at different levels. The unit standards required for a CoC can also count towards a formal qualification. Achieving unit standards to complete a qualification is recognised as formal learning in CPD. 

Much of the feedback submitted to us as part of the CoC requirements’ consultation highlighted issues which would be best addressed through a review of the Health and Safety at Work (Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations) Regulations 2016 (the Regulations).

We will incorporate this feedback when preparing its Regulations review submission to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment early next year.

On 31 October, we launched a new online continuing professional development (CPD) logbook system. All current certificate of competence (CoC) holders should have received an email providing them with access to the new system. If you have not received this please contact [email protected].

It gives CoC holders secure access to their own online log book, making it easier to monitor progress towards meeting CPD requirements. Further system information and instructions are available on our website.

The logbook is structured so there is a separate record for each year. CoC holders will be able to enter historic CPD learning activities into the online system until 19 February 2018, after which the CPD logbooks for previous years will become read-only. The CoC holder will then only be able to enter learning activities to their current year’s logbook.

Those CoC holders who do not wish to use the online system can still use the existing hard copy CPD log book. All CoC holders are responsible for meeting CPD requirements and keeping an accurate record of CPD learning activities. They will no longer need to submit their CPD log books to the Secretariat, unless they are randomly selected for verification.

If you need help using the system or have questions about CPD, please contact the Secretariat: [email protected] or 04 901 4980.

We want to encourage CoC applicants to apply via the new online system. Online applications are processed more quickly and easily than hard copy applications.

It is important CoC applications are accompanied by verified copies of all required supporting documentation. If we do not receive this, we will be unable to process applications. Use the application form checklist to make sure you have provided all required information.

Applicants contacted and asked to provide additional information must provide it to the Secretariat within 10 working days, otherwise the application will be returned and they will need to reapply.

Please note that all oral exam spaces for November and December have now been filled. We will be scheduling new exam dates in 2018 and will contact applicants in the new year to confirm oral exams.

We want to remind oral exam candidates who are not yet competent that they are able to apply to resit their oral exam. The pass rates for resits are higher than for first attempts at exams - 76% of candidates who resit their exams are deemed competent. An applicant has three opportunities to sit their CoC oral exam.

We currently have a strong pool of highly experienced industry professionals who sit on panels for oral exams. These panel members have worked hard since December 2015 to assess the competence of CoC applicants and we want to acknowledge their contribution to the industry.

We are always looking for more panel members to ensure that we have a pool of expertise from across the extractives industry to hold oral exams around the country and ease the workload for current panel members.

Feedback received in the CoC requirements’ review submissions highlighted the need for more career development opportunities in the extractives industry. Being a panel member gives experienced extractives professionals the chance to give back to the industry, learn more about health and safety issues and develop new skills. Sitting on an oral examination panel also counts as formal CPD.

If you are interested in being an oral exam panel member, please contact the Secretariat. Further information about examiners panels is available on the our website.

On 6 April we published competency requirements for holders of lifetime quarry managers’ CoCs.

These are set out in a New Zealand Gazette notice.

Holders will need to comply with the same competency requirements applying to holders of CoCs issued under the former regulations, as set out in the New Zealand Gazette notice. However, they do not need to demonstrate a specified level of work experience.

The Regulations requires a holder of a lifetime quarry manager’s CoC to comply with the prescribed:

• competency requirements and
• continuing education requirements.

The CoC will continue in force on that basis, as long as the holder, on and after 1 January 2018, has complied with these requirements.

The Board has held its last meeting for 2017. We would like to thank extractives industry members for their input. It is pleasing to see that more people across the industry are taking ownership of addressing health and safety issues and preparing for the future.

The recent increase in the pass rate of B-grade quarry manager CoC oral exam applicants is one of the specific highlights for the Board for the year.

If you have any questions in relation to any of these topics please contact the Board Secretariat:  [email protected] or phone 04 901 4980