20
Gas
news
Plumbing apprenticeship
training: a new direction
by Laurie Devitt, Gas Inspector
A recent industry partnership between
the Master Plumbers Mechanical Services
Association of Australia and the Plumbing
Trades Employees Union (PTEU) has
resulted in a new plumbing apprenticeship
training program and heralds a new era of
training for the plumbing trade.
The board of this new partnership, which
oversees training delivery at the Plumbing
Industry Climate Action Centre (PICAC),
consists of representatives from both
organisations.
The plumbing industry is investing heavily
in training and education, in order to ensure
and maintain a high standard of training
and plumbing skills.
This initiative reflects the level of
co-operation that exists across the plumbing
industry, and is a genuinely innovative
development. It is training designed,
developed and delivered by the industry
to the industry.
Group scheme hosts, plumbing
employers, the PTEU and industry
stakeholders have provided feedback about
the best ways in which to deliver skilled
apprentices to the industry at all year levels.
The new three-year apprentice training
program is a mixture of structured RTO
training and assessment, and on-the-job
training. This program began in February 2015
with a pilot group of 12 apprentices.
A second group of apprentices
commenced in April 2015 and a third group
will follow in August 2015.
Plumbing industry training apprentices with trainers Garry Waters (left) and Cameron Horsey (right).
The second year of this apprenticeship will
be delivered in 2016 and the third year in 2017.
Competencies for the qualification have
been grouped into three skill stages:
»» Apprenticeship Year 1—
Stage 1: Foundation plumbing skills.
»» Apprenticeship Year 2—
Stage 2: Installation plumbing skills.
»» Apprenticeship Year 3—
Stage 3: Trades plumbing skills.
ESV wishes to congratulate all the
parties involved with the development of this
apprentice training program and wishes all
the apprentices enrolled a bright future.
Don’t sign off until
the job is done
By Paul Harris, Manager
Gas Operations
Signing a Compliance Notice (Schedule
11) prior to the completion of your gas
installation is an offence.
Gas Installation and Appliance Safety
(GIAS) Operations has noticed an increase
in the number of signed off gas applications
that are received prior to the installation being
completed. This has created a spike in noncompliance notices and administrative work.
Inspection of incomplete work is a cost
to ESV in time and money, and stretches our
resources. The installation cannot be accepted
and in most cases will require a reinspection
on completion.
ESV has no choice but to issue a
Non-compliance Notice for non-compliant
work and cannot issue acceptance of the
gas installation for incomplete work.
Signing the Compliance Notice (Schedule 11)
of the Start Work Notice signifies that the:
»» gas installation meets the requirements
of the Gas Safety Act
»» required tests were carried out
»» installation is safe for gas to be available
to the consumer.
Under section 117 of the Gas Safety
Act 1997 it is an offence to provide false
or misleading information to ESV.
By signing off your work before it is
completed you are in effect providing false
or misleading information.
As of the date of this notice ESV will no
longer conduct an inspection of incomplete
work, unless agreed to by both parties.
ESV will forward all instances of signed
Compliance Notices (Schedule 11) that are
received (where an inspection is booked
prior to the works being completed) to the
GIAS Investigations Division for further
investigation and appropriate action will
be taken.
Please contact the Gas
Technical Information Helpline
on 1800 625 563 for further
information