H&S/skills
a practitioner or professional within
the industry. The only two true and
full Occupational Health and Safety
qualifications that are linked to the
NQF and are available in South Africa
are the National Diploma in Safety
Management (NDSM – NQF level 6)
and the accompanying Bachelor of
Technology in Safety Management
(BTSMN – NQF level 7). One year
programme courses can also be completed but only carry a limited amount
of credits towards your NQF level and
the 2 week long Safety Management
Training Course (NQF level 5) offered
by countless OHS Training providers
also lacks those credits – therefore,
always be sure that the provider you
choose has the necessary SETA accreditation so that you will receive
the necessary NQF credits upon completion. A post graduate Business
Commerce degree for Operational Risk
Management (NQF level 8) also exists
but caters more towards financial
safety and operational business risk.
Therefore we have a very limited
amount of truly beneficial training and
qualifications available to us and we
still have to research and investigate
20
into whether or not the service provider we have chosen is offering
genuine accredited training – there
is a difference between being registered with SETA and providing SETA
accredited training, this is a marketing tactic that many of these service
providers out there use. In essence,
an individual who has now worked in
the Health and Safety industry for 20
years can not apply for registration as
a Professional – they could attempt
the Recognition of Prior Learning
(RPL) route but this is also incredibly
extensive and the required historical
evidence of competence against the
Unit Standards may be very difficult
(if not impossible) to get hold of in
terms of records and access to previous employers etc. So the prospect
of fulfilling the SACPCMP registration is a daunting one for those who
feel that they deserve a higher title
or grading. This in turn affects the
role that the individual can fulfil on
a construction project and ultimately
the rates that they can charge. The
amended Construction Regulations
were promulgated as of November
2013 and effectively replaced the
PM Africa Magazine — january 2015
previous regulations as of February
2014 but the Department of Labour
(DoL) allowed time until August 2015
before all practitioners would have
to be formally registered and can
operate in the industry legally. So in
the meantime many have attempted
to register and have been allocated
lower designations than they had
applied for due to being assessed as
lacking the necessary experience and/
or qualifications.
Another unfortunate factor is that
some individuals have completed
ver y beneficial courses through
the National Examination Board
in Occupational Safety and Health
(NEBOSH) in South Africa even though
it is a UK based curriculum. The reason
that it is so beneficial is because it covers OHS issues from an International
Standards Organisation (ISO) level
through the OHSAS 18001 standard
which governs OHS on an international level. This is helpful as it gives
more of a systems driven approach to
Health and Safety as opposed to just
complying with South African legislation (Occupational Health and Safety
Act and Regulations 85 of 1993). The