CIBSE talk about Competency
An interesting article in the latest edition the CIBSE Journal this week from Hywel Davies talking about the need for engineers to prove competency.
The article quotes the Building Safety Bill and how Section 32 of the bill requires those undertaking design and construction in ANY building need to be competent to do so.
This is not new and has long been required. The onus is always on the Duty Holder (client) to ensure they employ competent persons (see R v Lockwood 2001).
For a person to be deemed competent they must possess:
This has long been understood by CIBSE's Division the Institute of Local Exhaust Ventilation Engineers (ILEVE) who, together with a number of industry partners including the the HSE, SHAPA, BOHS, BESA etc etc developed a Competency Matrix for the various roles involved in the the LEV industry. This is hosted on the ILEVE website and is freely available to anyone who wants to access it.
It can be used by individuals who are looking check what they should be doing, for employers to identify any training requirements and for duty holders to use as a checklist.
ILEVE has gone on to develop a Competency Card scheme where individuals are independently assessed and if successful can be award a competency card which can include areas of expertise such as:
None of the above is new and has been available within CIBSE for a number of years.
What is relatively new (launched in 2021) is the ILEVE Partnership Scheme which is aimed at companies who want to have their competency independently verified to give their clients (the duty holders) peace of mind.
It is surprising that CIBSE do not link to the ILEVE site from its 'Directories & Registers / Find a Specialist' page and that in their 'Directory of Members Practices' there are 26 companies listed that undertake LEV work however only one of them employs any LEV engineers who hold the ILEVE Competency card. Hypocritical?
Why is this? Is this because CIBSE do not recognise the importance of LEV? Is LEV just a simple movable arm or a fan in the roof? After all, its only extracting some dust or fumes, quite often you cant even see it in the air!
Excluding occupational cancer deaths. (e.g. asbestos related), in the UK on average 32 people EVERY DAY die from being exposed to hazardous substances in the workplace. 12,000 people a year. Or in other terms....a Grenfell every 2 days. This is not new. This has been happening every year for the last 10+ years. It also shows no sign of reducing. Why? Competency.
As a contractor involved in the design and installation of LEV systems we are often sent designs of systems produced by CIBSE members working for all different sizes of companies from small one person organisations to major blue chip companies.
CIBSE engineers are responsible for hundreds if not thousands of LEV designs and installations every year yet how many CIBSE engineers understand Occupational Hygiene? How many hold BOHS P602 qualification?
CIBSE ILEVE publish a list of those individuals who hold their competency card and what for so clients and duty holders and check them before employing them. It can be found at www.ileve.org.
Head of Health, Safety and Environment at University of Sheffield, Advanced Manufacturing Group (AMG)
3 年Thank you for sharing, I am still surprised at how many companies do not define the standards / criteria to which they require their choices in LEV engineers to be measured against