ConstructionSkills Tool Box Talk

No. 10 Personal competence

Prepare Reason Why Outline Location? Distractions? Talk aids? Competence is an essential part of getting the job done safely. Lack of competence has lead to many accidents. This talk will cover what competence is and how it can be achieved.

Why is competence so important?

1. 2. 3. 4. The construction industry has a very poor record of accidents and occupational ill health. Many accidents and cases of ill health occur because of the lack of competence of the people planning, supervising or doing the job. Health and safety law demands that anyone running a construction site must ensure that anyone working on the site is competent to do what is required of them. Health and safety law also requires that you report unsafe situations.

What is competence?
It is the ability of anyone to carry out the work that they have to do without harming the health or safety of themselves or anyone else. 2. It is the ability to recognise an unsafe situation arising out of what you or someone else is doing and act on it. 3. The definition of competence is accepted as being a mix of skills, training and experience. Q: What is a likely effect of lack of competence? Q: Give one example of a lack of competence creating an unsafe situation that you have seen. 1.

Achieving competence
Training is one way of achieving competence. It is through training and actual experience that you will increase your knowledge of health and safety hazards and what you must do to avoid them. 3. You can build up your knowledge in a number of ways, such as: attending site induction attending and contributing to tool box talks attending other types of training necessary for your skill development asking your employer, manager or supervisor questions when you are unsure of anything about health or safety questioning anything that you have been asked to do if you do not think you are competent to do it. Q: What should you do if you do not understand something that was explained to you during site induction and tool box talk? 4. Experience is another element of competence. 5. Depending upon the complexity of what you have to do, it could take you some time to gain the necessary experience to be considered fully competent. 6. It is likely that you will have additional supervision while you gain the necessary experience. Q: Why do you think that experience is an important element of competence? Note to supervisor: Now explain your companys procedures for establishing the necessary competencies. 1. 2.

Do you have any questions for me?

Further information
Construction Site Safety (GE 700) Module A8 Site Safety Simplified (GE 706) Chapter 2

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN

SHORT TRAINING SESSION ATTENDANCE SHEET

Title: Tool Box Talk No. 10 Personal competence Location ................................................................. Duration (minutes) ................................................ Presenters name ................................................................................. Date ...................................................................... Start time ............................................................. End time .............................................................. Presenters signature ..............................................................................

Candidates name

Name of candidates employer

Candidates signature

CITB-ConstructionSkills grants scheme - claim information

Note: Claims can only be made for your employees or labour-only subcontractors

No. attended

Duration

Total time

Employer reference