12. Worker Competence
Prescription of Skills Required
141. The minimum skill requirements for registration for both electrical and gas work are prescribed in Regulations. The EWRB and the PG&D Board have in the past examined workers on these skills. Setting and holding examinations was a key function for both boards at the time they were originally established. However, these examinations now represent duplication in assessment as ITOs have evolved to the stage where the boards can be satisfied that workers trained through the ITO competency-based system have gained the prescribed skills. Both boards have now signed Memoranda of Understanding with ITOs to remove the examination requirement.
142. The current requirement for electrical and gas workers to demonstrate that they are licensed to practice their occupation is sound. However, the system of training and recognising worker competency is unnecessarily inflexible and costly because specific skill requirements have been prescribed in legislation. As legislation, and the Acts in particular, are onerous and time-consuming to change, it is difficult to introduce flexibility and to ensure skill requirements are kept up to date.
143. The review team recommends that the level of prescriptiveness on skill requirements should be reduced. This will give training providers more flexibility to vary the technical and safety content in response to technological change or trends such as those that may become apparent in accident statistics. The review team recommends that public input into the development of competency standards relating to worker licensing should be required to ensure that public safety interests are fully addressed.
Breadth of Skills Required to be Recognised as Competent
144. The breadth of training required to gain registration in the electrical and gas trades may be imposing unnecessary compliance costs on some employers and trainees. For example, the skills currently required of electricians by the electrical regulations are based upon the skills needed to safely rewire a house. Many electrical workers, for example some of those in the commercial sector, do not need all of these skills.
145. While the industry training structure allows for unit standards to be bundled together to form different qualifications, most of the current ITOs, both for gasfitting and electrical work, have not seen any particular benefit in promoting qualifications for narrower ranges of skills than those required for registration (although it is recognised that this may be due in part to the level of prescription).
146. It is acknowledged that electrical and gas workers may require a broad range of skills in order to be fully employed in a market as small as New Zealand. However, the PG&D Board has noted that it is difficult for trainees to gain experience in many aspects of the trade, particularly in the commercial and industrial field, because their employers tend to specialise in a narrow band of work.
147. The review team believes that, as long as workers can work safely, they should not be prevented from developing a narrower range of skills for specialist areas if they wish. The current breadth of training required in both the electrical and gas trades also inhibits multi-skilling. New areas of work, such as kitchen installation, increasingly require ranges of skills that cross traditional trade boundaries. There is a need for these types of skills to be defined and recognised in a way that ensures safety, but does not require workers to face unreasonable delays and hurdles or the costs of double registration.
148. The boards have attempted to provide some flexibility in skill recognition via special exemptions and restricted/limited licences and the cross-recognition of competencies from other trades. However, the review team believes that a simpler and more transparent system needs to be developed to enable greater specialisation and multi-skilling to develop in response to market demand.
149. The review team believes that this could be achieved through the ITO system. A bundle of compulsory unit standards with a heavy emphasis on safety, set at a lower level than current training requirements, could be developed as the foundation for a variety of qualifications. These qualifications could cover the traditional broad range of skills, or may focus on specialist or multi-skilled areas. The boards, in consultation with the government regulatory agencies, and with some input from the public, should be empowered to specify which qualifications they consider adequate for different classes of licensing. The boards would be required to demonstrate that safety aspects are adequately addressed by specified qualifications and can be met at reasonable cost.
150. Some electrical workers and union groups expressed concern that this approach would provide for a lower level of training than electrical workers receive at present and this would threaten safety. The review team's opinion is that the basic safety elements of any training should not be compromised and that the variation in training should be in the number and range of technical skills a person needs to acquire to be recognised as a skilled worker. Workers should also be made responsible for ensuring that they do not undertake work that extends beyond their level of competence.
151. People were also concerned that the status of the traditional trades would be eroded. However, broad trade qualifications will not be entirely replaced by narrow qualifications; workers will still be able follow traditional paths of trade training if they wish. The increased flexibility in the recognition of skills will allow narrower specialist training, which may in turn, reduce costs, both to those undergoing training and their employers.
152. The review team recognises the extension of the CER arrangements with Australia and the emerging alignment of the technical infrastructures of the two economies. It therefore recommends that the legislation make provision for the explicit recognition of Australian qualifications and competencies without the need for specific re-verification within New Zealand.
Ensuring the On-going Competence of Workers
Safety Training
153. Electrical workers are required to undergo refresher safety training. These requirements are contained in Schedule 5 of the Electricity Regulations 1997. There are no such requirements for gas workers after their initial training.
154. Electrical workers wishing to obtain and to renew practising licenses must be able to demonstrate that they have completed the required training within a certain period. The current safety training requirements for different types of practising licences are shown in the table below.
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