This training, competency and awareness procedure can assist your business comply with AS/NZS ISO 14001, Environmental Management Systems, clauses:
AS/NZS ISO 14001 training, competence and awareness relates to guidance and educational material that should be followed by staff on the company’s environmental strategy and objectives. It is a process that helps organizations to identify and control their environmental aspects and impacts.
Organizations that implement an AS/NZS ISO 14001 environmental management system must provide training for their employees on the system and how it works. The training should cover the requirements of the AS/NZS ISO 14001 standard, the organization’s environmental procedures and how employees can contribute to the company’s environmental management system.
The benefits of AS/NZS ISO 14001 training and awareness programs include improved environmental performance, reduced environmental liabilities, and increased employee understanding of the environmental management system.
The competence of personnel is vital to enable a business to operate effectively and safely. Where a level of training, competency or a certificate is required to perform a work activity, no person should be permitted to undertake that activity without an adequate level of training, competency, or the necessary certificate being attained.
Competence refers to a person’s ability to do their jobs safely and effectively. In general terms, this can be defined as per below.
Competency is a combination of attributes, including skills, training and experience, relevant to a particular work task or function that enables a person to undertake that work task safely or discharge that function by following company expectations.
A competent person is a person who has acquired, through a combination of training, qualification or experience, the knowledge and skill necessary to undertake their work safely or discharge their function by following company expectations.
A competency assessment is the process of collecting and evaluating evidence (either an internal assessment and/or an assessment authorised by external assessors) to determine if an individual is competent to perform at the required level in his/her job.
Management of an organization are responsible for planning and the required initiatives and activities that are needed for a given budgeted year or timeframe. Management are the fundamental component for the identification of a competency to enable staff to undertake their work to the organization’s expectations. A training, competence and awareness procedure can be vital to a management team, as it can outline their responsibilities such as:
Conducting a training needs analysis is a great way to determine what training is required to enable workers to competently perform their roles. A training needs analysis can consider the following matters, inclusive of:
A training needs analysis should be reviewed periodically for all permanent and temporary employee position types and updated to reflect any new positions created. The training needs analysis should be updated if:
Once training needs have been identified and prioritized, management can then determine and source the appropriate training programs. Once a training provider is identified and their services engaged, the training should be scheduled, and subsequent details recorded. Training effectiveness should be monitored and reviewed during an appraisal process and by completion of a training course evaluation checklist.
When it comes to the requirements of AS/NZS ISO 14001 2015 standard all personnel should receive periodic environmental management system awareness training, appropriate to their responsibilities and this should be provided to ensure that personnel are aware of:
Note: After AS/NZS ISO 14001 environmental management system training, an attendance record should be completed and signed by each attendee and retained on file as documented information.
