Archive for the 'Training' Category

16th Jul 2010

Continued Competence

CIWM and WAMITAB's 'Operator Competence Scheme' (the Scheme') for England and Wales only has a requirement for individuals to keep their competence up to date. Therefore all competent persons falling within the Scheme will be required to demonstrate Continuing Competence and this will be appropriate to the level of risk posed by the facility so that it remains proportional. Although this only applies to England and Wales if you wish to keep your qualification current for the whole of the UK you need to complete this test.
 
Further information relating to this scheme and how you book your test is available HERE
 
Albion has provided the following support to candidates to prepare them for completing this test.
 
We have prepared a mock test which is available HERE
This test is free to use and is available to anyone who registers and agrees to a disclaimer.
 
In addition we have also prepared a 1 day CIWM and WAMITAB's 'Operator Competence Scheme' refresher course to assist with candidate revision. The purpose of this course is to prepare candidates to allow them to successfully complete their test.
We will shortly be arranging a number of open courses around the UK further details to follow. Alternatively, if your organisation has a number of COTC holders, we would be happy to deliver the course inhouse for you up to a maximum of 16 candidates per session.
 
We trust you have found this information useful, if you wish to book an in house course please contact us 01292 610428 or online

Posted by Posted by Alasdair under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training, WAMITAB Comments No Comments »

15th Jun 2010

Continued Competence Scheme

On Monday 7th June, Alasdair Meldrum of Albion Environmental Ltd received his award of Certificate on Continuing Competence. The continuing competence scheme was developed jointly by WAMITAB & CIWM and approved by Defra & the Welsh Assembly Government.
The award provides evidence maintaining competence over time and meets the specific requirements of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007. For further information on Continuing Competence please click.
To contact Albion to discuss how you go about updating your COTC, please click 

Posted by Posted by Alasdair under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training, WAMITAB, Waste Management Comments No Comments »

11th Jun 2010

Albion host visit from 20 Romanian guests of SQA

On Friday 28th May, Albion Environmental Ltd were pleased to play host to SQA and 20 visitors from Romania. During their visit they were shown around our approved centre and received a presentation on how an approved SQA centre is run. A follow up message from SQA was emailed showing the feedback from the visit.  “You will see that levels of satisfaction were very high and that the visit was a success. Many thanks to you all once again for your support and invaluable contributions” Mike Hewitt (SQA)

Posted by Posted by Alasdair under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training Comments No Comments »

29th Apr 2010

WAMITAB update Albion’s Centre Approval

On Friday 23rd April, WAMITAB made an approval visit to Albion Environmental Ltd. This was a positive Centre Approval visit for Albion.  
 
This visit was more of a systems review to ensure that all the necessary documentation etc. was in place. The WAMITAB verifier was extremely impressed with the centre setup and the attention to detail with regards all their centre staff.  She added “In addition to this, all documentation relative to candidates is extremely structured and in place. 
 
They have a secure system for backing up information and data, both to an internal and external server system. Alisdair Meldrum has put in place some excellent procedures for capturing essential information about all A/IV staff.
 
Everything I asked to see was produced either in paper format or as data secured on the server/s they use. They are an extremely knowledgeable and confident working team. The staff CPD records and folders are very impressive indicating an extremely wide remit of appropriate qualifications held by A/IV and other staff. They have exemplars of best practice which support their Centre Approval process.”
 
For more information on what Albion can offer in terms of WAMITAB qualifications, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Posted by Posted by Alasdair under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training, WAMITAB Comments No Comments »

27th Apr 2010

Operator Competence

Posted by Posted by Alasdair under Filed under Training, WAMITAB Comments No Comments »

04th Mar 2010

Scottish Government Consultation Paper on the Consolidation of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations and Amendments arising from the Better Waste Regulation Exercise:

 
 
The recent Scottish Government consultation paper issued 26th Feb. 2010 has proposed the following (click here)
9.1. It is currently a requirement of Regulation 4 and Schedule 1A of the WMLR that a Certificate of Technical Competence ( CoTC) is held, as one of the items to demonstrate that an applicant for a WML is a fit and proper person to hold such a licence.
9.2. During the BWR consultation exercise, we indicated that the Scottish Government considered this to be "gold-plating" the relevant Community legislation. Scottish Government policy is to avoid any form of "gold-plating". Furthermore, we note:-
  • a similar system is a requirement neither for registration of an exemption nor for the much more complex process of obtaining a PPC permit;
  • it is questionable how well such a requirement fits with Community law, notably the Services Directive 8;
  • it is not a proper function of Government to create and enforce what is essentially a private sector monopoly; and
  • the requirement for a CoTC could be abused to create a barrier to entry to the sector for new participants.
9.3. Respondents were generally supportive of some form of demonstration of technical competence but, in Scottish Government view, no convincing argument was set out as to why the current CoTC system, or indeed any replacement, would achieve any additional protection that adhering to the terms of the relevant licence or exemption would not already provide.
9.5. The Scottish Government is committed to simplifying regulation and see no reason to retain the regulatory requirement for a CoTC to be acquired to demonstrate the suitability of a WML applicant.
9.6. It is therefore proposed to remove this requirement from the Scottish WMLR.
9.7. It will be for SEPA to satisfy itself on the technical competence of WML applicants. This would be in any way SEPA sees fit: nevertheless, it is likely that important evidence of technical competence would be operating correctly to the terms of any licence in force.
9.8 It should also be noted that, while the Scottish Government does not believe that it is appropriate that the law require a CoTC, it does however welcome efforts by the waste industry to provide professional education, and further develop operators' skills and knowledge.
We at Albion understand the issues raised in section 9.1 to 9.5 but to simply do away with a system which has had a significant impact on improving the training and qualifications within the industry would appear to be a serious back wards step. Many other industries for example construction and quarrying industry are struggling to implement a similar management competence scheme as there have no legislative drivers in place. In addition with the appalling waste management industry Health and Safety record it is surely in everyone’s interest to improve the overall competence of management.
As a company it is obviously in our commercial interests to defend the existing system, however we do think there are improvements which can be made and also we will continue to deliver these qualifications whether there is legislation in place or not. A number of our views and points on this issue are set out below –
1.      At Albion we became an approved training centre to deliver these vocational qualifications in 2002, which was some 5 years after the system came into force. As a company we recognised we had to break into a captive market and we did this with two very simple guiding principles –
·         Work we do must benefit the client organisation
·         Work we do must benefit the candidate
Using this very simple approach we now have a significant share of the market in Scotland (and in fact in the rest of the UK) and continue to have a significant repeat market with candidates coming back to do 2nd, 3rd and even 4th and 5th awards.
2.      The changes made to the system in England and Wales provide a variety of routes to achieving competence and is currently working well. The changes have actually resulted in an increase in qualifications as a number of routes have been permitted. So a sensible modification and improvement of the system has resulted in increase in qualifications which is surely in industry and governments interests to achieve? Current proposal does not provide for what would appear to be a perfectly sensible option.
3.      We have always argued that the requirement to complete a level 4 vocational qualification to achieve a COTC artificially distorts the market from a training and development point of view –
·         Current approach misses out large section of the market as it is only suitable for managers. The proper management of a site is dependant on training of all staff on site.
·         It results in staff (supervisors and foremen) trying to complete an award at too high a level. For example try and gain a level 4 qualification rather than a level 3 which may be more appropriate to their experience and qualifications.
·         Industry sectors which use vocational qualifications well, use all levels from 1 to 5 as training and development for staff. Current focus on level distorts the approach taken to training in the waste industry.
·         There is no “ private sector monopoly”, a large number of approved centres are in house centres either in large organisations or local authorities. We at Albion have an active policy of advising organisations with large numbers of staff looking to complete level 1 and 2 awards to set up to do the award in house. This is a far more cost effective and efficient method for delivering these awards. We can provide support for the new centre and qualifications, for both technical and assessment (A unit) qualifications. (click here for further information)
The current COTC scheme has achieved much over the years and although not perfect is still fundamentally “fit for purpose”. To remove such a system totally would be a move in the wrong direction for the waste management industry. The system has played a large part in improved manager competence, played a part in trying to improve H&S performance and ensure environmental issues are managed in a sensitive and sustainable manner.
We will obviously be responding to the full consultation document however if you have any particular views please let us know.

Posted by Posted by Alasdair under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training, Waste Management Comments No Comments »

18th Jan 2010

SQA External Verification Visit – Construction Awards Level 2

Albion is pleased with the recent External Verification visit completed by SQA on 18th January 2010. The Construction Award level 2 awards are designed for construction site operatives. These awards are usually CITB funded and also allow candidates to gain their CSC cards. In good practice section the External verifier noted the following –
 
“Good practice was noted in relation to:-
  • site observation reports which were very well written in an evaluative style which conveyed competence while still giving a
  • clear understanding of the work undertaken on site to the reader.
  • mapping of the site observation narrative to units and performance criteria was very effective and gave the candidate and the internal verifier a clear picture of competence's achieved and still to be achieved.
Well done.”
 
Albion is very pleased with these results and it demonstrates the experience of our staff and the level of detail we put into developing these awards. If you are interested in getting your staff assessed please do not hesitate to contact Alasdair Meldrum.

Posted by Posted by blog under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training Comments No Comments »

20th Dec 2009

Albion Assessor Celebrates Completion of 100th Certificate of Technical Competence portfolio.

100 COTC AwardsAlbion Training Manager, Craig Chandler has just completed the assessment of his one hundredth level 4 vocational qualification in Waste Management which leads to a Certificate of Technical Competence. The award was completed for Jose Cabellero of East Lothian Council.

Commenting on his achievement Craig said "I was somewhat surprised when I counted up the number of assessments I had completed and realised I was nearing 100! I have learnt a lot during the process and continue to develop and improve our system. I am particularly pleased the 100th candidate was from East Lothian Council as I know and have worked with many of their staff"

Albion has delivered COTC assessment for management staff, level 3 waste management awards for site supervisors and currently deliver a 1 day Household Waste Recycling Centre Operators course as part of East
Lothian Council’s induction process. We are also currently assessing some of their operational staff for level 2 waste management qualifications.
 

Posted by Posted by blog under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training Comments No Comments »

17th Dec 2009

SQA External Verification Visit – Waste Management Awards Level 1-4

Albion is pleased with the recent External Verification visit completed by SQA on 17th December 2009. The Waste Management Awards level 1-4 awards continue to be the main vocational qualifications we deliver at Albion, and we have built up a considerable level of expertise in this area. In good practice section the External verifier noted the following –
  • Good use of photographic evidence
  • Good application of APL
  • Clear and logical portfolio building
  • A robust and effective internal verification system
  • CPD records were comprehensive, well maintained and compliant with SSC requirements
  • Good evidence of standardization activities taking place
Albion is very pleased with these results and it demonstrates the experience of our staff and the level of detail we put into developing these awards. If you are interested in getting your staff assessed please do not hesitate to contact Alasdair Meldrum

Posted by Posted by blog under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training, Waste Management Comments No Comments »

27th Jun 2009

Albion Environmental Management System – Quality Assured

Albion Environmental Ltd has successfully gained accreditation to the following standards BS EN ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System), BS EN ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental Management System) and OHSAS 18001:2007 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System).
 
We have greatly benefitted from implementing these systems, as we have seen a significant improvement in efficiency in all areas of operation.

Albion Environmental can assist your organisation to maximise your outputs and streamline operations to ensure maximum efficiency. If you would be interested in achieving any of the ISO standards, or require further information on what Local Authority funding may also be available to assist in implementing these systems, contact Billy Anderson

Posted by Posted by blog under Filed under Albion Environmental News, Training Comments No Comments »

« Previous Entries