This is the New Zealand Mining Board of Examiners September meeting newsletter.

We recently undertook a consultation on the proposed changes to certificate of competence (CoC) requirements.

Seventy-eight written submissions were received. The submissions expressed a wide range of opinions from industry groups, businesses and individuals. A great deal of thought went into the submissions and the Board appreciated the efforts of all submitters in response to the proposed changes.

The large number of submissions means that the Board’s analysis of the feedback will take some time. The Board will take this feedback into consideration when making its final recommendations to the WorkSafe Board.

Submissions received

Of the 78 submissions received:

• 88% were from the quarry/alluvial sector
• five industry organisation submissions were received from: MinEX; IoQ; AQA; Civil Contractors New Zealand and Minerals West Coast. All endorsed MineX’s submission to some extent.
• five were from mine surveyors
• four were from the mining sector
• 16 were sole endorsements of the MinEx submission.

Submissions were made on the following proposals:

Some feedback focused on issues out of scope for this specific review, such as:

• proposed qualifications pathways for extractives and its application to CoCs
• training and assessment
• CoC roles and responsibilities.

Addressing many of these issues would require changes to the Health and Safety at Work (Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations) Regulations 2016. This feedback will be useful for the Board when it prepares its regulations review submission and when it considers training and assessment issues in the future.

In parallel with the CoC requirements review, MITO has reviewed the content of some extractives unit standards and also sought feedback on these proposed changes. MITO will need to seek input from a group of subject matter experts regarding the feedback it received and will then submit changes to NZQA for approval.

It is anticipated that these approved changes will not be finalised until next year.

The Gazette notice with the new CoC requirements will be published in the first quarter of 2018. To ensure that the new requirements contain up-to-date unit standards information, the Board will need to wait until MITO has completed its unit standards review before it can draft the CoC requirements Gazette notice and make its final recommendations to the WorkSafe Board. 

We are developing a new online system which will allow CoC holders to record CPD activities electronically. CoC holders will have secure access to their own online logbook which will also make it easier to monitor progress towards meeting CPD requirements. 

The system will be available at the end of October and CoC holders will be provided with further information about how to use the system soon.  

CoC holders will be able to input their CPD information directly into an online log book see “real time” information about CPD activities, including their completed hours. This means that CoC holders will no longer need to submit their log books to the Secretariat. However, those CoC holders who do not wish to use the online system will still be able to use the existing hard copy CPD log book.

Recent results have shown an increase in the number of competent oral exam candidates.

Between 19 July and 20 September, 80% of all oral exam candidates were found competent and 18 out of 23 (78%) B-grade quarry manager applicants were found competent.

We are pleased to see these improvements and will continue to monitor these results closely. We believe that industry initiatives such as oral exam mentoring, training programmes, and better preparation by employers should help candidates prepare for their exams and lead to continued improvements in oral exam results.

Applicants are reminded that oral exams assess an applicant’s ability to respond to workplace situations, by using good workplace practice. Check out our High Level Framework for Oral Examination Requirements for Extractives’ Certificates of Competence for more information.  

The following table and chart set our results for exams between December 2015 and 20 September 2017:

C* = Competent    NYC* = Not yet competent 

We want to remind oral exam candidates who are not yet competent that they are able to apply to resit their oral exam. The pass rates for resits are higher than for first attempts at exams - 76% of candidates who resit their exams are deemed competent.

An applicant has three opportunities to sit their CoC oral exam.

If you have any questions in relation to any of these topics please contact the Board Secretariat:  BoE_Secretariat@worksafe.govt.nz or phone 04 901 4980.