Certification of OHS professionals

At the recent OHS Leaders Summit 2014, a panel discussed the new voluntary certification process for OHS professionals which is being launched in June this year as part of the OHS Body of Knowledge project, funded by WorkSafe Victoria.

The OHS Body of Knowledge project has already developed and published in 2012 the first edition of the OHS Body of Knowledge; which provides a framework for OHS professionals to map their areas of practice and identify topics that could be the focus of their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plans. An accreditation of OHS professional education has also been implemented.

Due to be launched on 30 June 2014, the final element of the Body of Knowledge project is the implementation of a voluntary process for profession-wide certification of generalist OHS professionals and practitioners.

“Certification sets standards of education, experience, demonstrated knowledge and skills, and evaluates people against those standards,” says Certification Project Manager Sue Bottrell.

“Certification will give some certainty and guidance to employers, clients, workers and the community as to the competence and standing of the person providing OHS advice," she says.

“Safety professionals are unregulated in Australia as it is currently not a legal requirement for safety professionals to have any formal qualifications to work in the field of safety or provide advice to employers or others about safety.

“The certification process will not only give workplaces confidence in the competency of those they employ to give OHS advice, it will also benefit OHS generalist professionals and practitioners through:

• recognition of their education, knowledge and skills in a recognised field;
• employment advantage by demonstrating competence through an independent assessment;
• the ability to display the ‘Certified OHS Professional’ logo on professional reports and business cards;
• consultants being listed in the online list of certified OHS consultants;
• providing a basis for international comparability (and possibly reciprocal recognition), thus promoting mobility of credentials; and
• increased recognition of the OHS professional and practitioner roles by employers and the community.”

Bottrell says while some OHS professionals may feel that the certification project is biased towards formal qualifications, the process is designed to recognise both experience and qualifications. “It is important for the safety profession to recognise that to achieve credibility in the community formal qualifications are essential, along with experience.

“Some may feel that because they don’t have qualifications they may not be able to be certified,” she says. “However, for 12 months after the launch of certification, unqualified OHS professionals will be able to sit an exam as an alternative path to certification.”

 “This process will recognise their experience and the alternative path to assessment offers them a simple way in which they can demonstrate their knowledge without returning to university to become certified.”

How can OHS professionals become certified?

Certification is based on recognising qualifications, experience, maintenance of professional skills through continuing professional development and membership of a relevant professional body. Certification will need to be renewed annually and the process will be overseen by the Australian OHS Professional Certification Board.

The ongoing key requirements for certification include:

• membership of a recognised participating OHS professional body*;
• knowledge through qualification;
• minimum period of full-time practice or equivalent;
• demonstrated practical competence;
• continual professional development (CPD); and
• commitment to a code of ethics.

OHS professionals have until 30 June 2014 to become a ‘graded’ member of a participating professional body in order to qualify for the simplified transitional certification procedure at a discounted fee.

The simplified certification procedure will be available for graded members of participating professional bodies for 12 months after the launch of the Australian OHS Professional Certification Project.

The simplified process will be a simple application which involves completing a questionnaire about experience and qualifications and evidence of grading by a participating professional body.

“We hope that eventually the market will demand that OHS professionals will be certified and essentially use that as a threshold question when recruiting. I am sure that OHS professionals who are committed to their profession will participate,” concludes Bottrell.

For further information about the Australian OHS Professional Certification Project, please email info@ohscertification.org.au.

*Participating professional body include:

• Safety Institute of Australia (SIA);
• Australian Institute of Occupational Hygiene (AIOH);
• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (HFESA);
• Australian New Zealand Society for Occupational Medicine(ANZSOM) ;  and
• Australian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AFOEM).