Article by Alastair Mitchell, HSE’s Agriculture and Food Sector
Alastair MitchellBeing properly trained is one of the most effective ways of boosting you and your staff's safety and improving the efficiency of the business as a whole. Now there's a simple way of doing that.
Few farmers or growers would argue against the proposition that trained and competent staff are a valuable and highly sought after resource in the competitive and challenging times businesses face today.
Yet how many of those businesses would also admit that they recognise the wider business benefits of training?
The key to running a business successfully is undoubtedly to ensure that staff are skilled and competent to enable them to perform tasks to their best potential. But how many businesses have really recognised the wider benefits of health and safety training?
Too often businesses fail to realise that managing health and safety should be an integral part of their overall business management strategy.
Many blue chip companies have long since made the connection between having trained competent staff as part of their health and safety management arrangements and achieving a viable and profitable business. Put simply, they recognise that good health and safety is good business.
Accidents and ill health in the workplace cost money, ruin lives, and cause needless suffering to the individuals and families involved. So how can busy farmers and growers take positive steps to ensure their staff are competent in health and safety while at the same time reducing the risk of a costly accident occurring and complying with the law?
One solution is to consider vocational qualifications (VQs). These are ideal if you need to improve knowledge or skills in a particular area and are usually taken through a college or training provider.
They are totally different to traditional qualifications - focusing much more on learning practical skills. They should not be confused with National Vocational Qualifications, known as NVQs (or SVQs in Scotland), which generally require much longer to complete.
VQs are nationally recognised awards. To make sure you have reached the required standard you can take many forms of assessment including on-line multiple choice tests or assignments.
Historically, many health and safety training courses or qualifications have not fully addressed the hazards and risks associated with farm work or have required a length of study that would be impractical for most farmers or their staff.
With these factors in mind, The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and industry groups that include the NFU, Lantra Sector Skills Council, and Unite have agreed what should be included within a new training and qualification package.
Supported by the two leading training and qualification awarding bodies in the land-based sector - City and Guilds NPTC and Lantra Awards - the result is a set of vocational qualifications (VQs) tailored to the needs of farming and horticulture.
These qualifications are accredited by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). They are available at three academic levels, so will be relevant to the capabilities of most farm and horticultural businesses, employing workers, self-employed farmers or growers, as well as supervisors and managers.
All levels are easily manageable and require no more than 30 hours of study at each level. In practice, most people will require far less time to complete them. The key point is that farmers and growers now have access to comprehensive training and qualifications for health and safety specific to their workplace.
Undertaking these VQs has benefits for individuals and for business. They have been designed to meet the needs of the industry and will enable staff at all levels to:
For those individuals who are self-employed or have management responsibilities, completing these VQs will also enable them to:
Level 1 qualifications are introductory awards, ideal if you are just starting out or are new to a subject area. They cover routine tasks and basic knowledge or understanding. But with the health and safety VQs, candidates start at the next level.
Level 2 qualifications require you to already have some knowledge and experience of the subject area.
Level 3 qualifications cover more complex work and could be used to develop supervisory abilities as well.
Level 4 is more demanding and will draw upon some specialist or technical expertise.
HSE has worked closely with the awarding bodies and other stakeholders to develop learning materials and training courses to help facilitate greater uptake and, most importantly, ensure that they fit in with the busy lives of those who work in the sector. Learning materials are based on case studies of real farm and horticultural accidents, and web-based learning tools and assessment questions. Speak to your local training provider group or college to find out more about training courses in your area.
Many individuals working in the land-based sector have already embraced the concept of continuous professional development (CPD) and this is rapidly becoming an integral part of many professional schemes within agriculture.
CPD is a process that encourages individuals to undertake training and qualifications to increase their knowledge, thereby raising levels of competence.
The National Register of Sprayer Operators (NRoSO), for example, offers a CPD-based membership scheme. The qualifications have also been recognised by The Agricultural Wages Board and are now listed with other certificates of competence on the Agricultural Wages Order 2008.
College students are also set to benefit from these qualifications, with many colleges striving to integrate the VQs within their existing curricula.
Many see this training as an essential pre-requisite for students before they undertake work placements. It also enables colleges to ensure that the key health and safety messages are incorporated into student learning at an early stage before they go out into the workplace for the first time.
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