NEW HIGH WATER MARK IN DRINKING WATER TRAINING
Posted: Tuesday 6th January 2009
In the past year, 22 of the UK’s 27 water companies have had new competency schemes for drinking water operatives endorsed by sector skills council Energy & Utility Skills (EU Skills), creating a new nation-wide benchmark in training and standards. It’s the first time any water industry in the world has approved and enforced a national standard in occupational competency, and the first time in the UK that water companies have agreed common action on training.
In 2006, all water companies, led by industry body Water UK, signed up to the Competent Operator Framework. The Framework is intended to ensure operators in drinking water plants would all be able to carry out their work to the same standard. As well as benefits for employees, the national standards mean new start-up water companies entering the industry have targets against which to measure themselves, therefore enabling a level playing field for competition.
The deadline for all water companies to be able to demonstrate operator competency within the guidelines of the Framework is December 2008. That 22 companies have so far had new training schemes endorsed and are actively ensuring employees are competent indicates a huge success on the part of the water industry. In just over a year, most water companies have embraced the new Framework as a vital part of their business.
Under the Framework, all the water companies that are responsible for abstracting and treating drinking water must ensure any operative they employ meets the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for competence. NOS are part of government guidance for competency in any job.
There are three elements to the Competent Operator Framework:
• Legally required training. This thread includes the requirements of operatives and their companies to meet their legal/regulatory, and health and safety obligations• Process Operations Competence. This thread includes all other aspects of training and assessment required for an individual to carry out their role as an operative. For example, it might include on-site sampling to control the quality of the treatment process. The required knowledge and understanding will be assessed against the National Occupational standards operating process plant.
• Company/site specific training. This includes, for example, understanding the reporting structure of a company, colour coding of equipment, emergency action plans and managing telemetry.
EU Skills is project managing the implementation and guiding companies through the process. It also officially endorses competency programmes that meet the standards.
The benefits of introducing the Framework are manifold. Not only are employees trained in the latest technology used in drinking water plants, but companies are able to more readily demonstrate the competence of their staff. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which first raised the need for national standards, will incorporate this evidence to inform their risk based activities
David Hellier, Head of Sector Engagement, Energy & Utility Skills, comments:
“The way in which the water companies have bought into the Competent Operator Framework is a credit to the industry. The Framework means that the whole of the UK has a high standard of operator competence, which itself makes the UK’s water industry one of the most consistently high performing in the world. We can say that around 90% of water companies will have competent operators by their self-imposed deadline. EU Skills has worked with water companies to ensure their submissions are correct.”
Brian Jackson of United Utilities, who Chair’s the Competent Operator Implementation Group on behalf of Water UK commented; “This programme is, for the first time, setting a consistent and transparent framework within which individual companies within the UK demonstrate Operator Competency. It also provides an appropriate reassurance to our regulators, customers and wider stakeholders as to the core competency of the UK Water Industry for water treatment operatives. The framework we now have was crafted from a review of various approaches taken both in the UK and wider a field, and I am confident the UK Water Industry framework now sets the standard for world wide “best practice” in this field.”
