January 2024

Contract The View Talk from Certass TA
NO COMPETENCE WITHOUT EXPERIENCE
Jason Clemmit, Managing Director at Certass, explains why it’s not just knowledge and
I
know by now everyone is probably feeling
a little overloaded with the Building Safety
Regulator and the Act, and all the talk about
competence in the construction workforce, but
this piece is to express my thoughts on the
journey to competence.
To be classed and certified as competent, a
person must have the appropriate knowledge,
skills, behaviours, and experience.
skills that are vital when it comes to competence.
Knowledge and skills, and indeed to an extent
behaviours, can be obtained from on-the-job
(show and do), structured training such
as classroom and simulated work, or a
combination of both. This may be backed
by a recognised qualification, but that is
not a hard rule. A qualification, such as an
apprenticeship, is a great way into any trade but
that’s all it is – an entry point.
Left: Jason Clemmit
“They say you only start learning to drive
after passing your test. Becoming competent
is the same thing”
It is also critical to remember that in our industry
informal on-the-job training is the more prevalent
method of bringing new workers into our industry,
starting as fitters’ mates. There are of course
issues with this in the likelihood of knowledge
gaps and incorrectly learned behaviours.
As someone who entered the construction
industry at 16 via an apprenticeship and then
worked through a range of additional academic
training, I can’t stress enough how I fully support
a good quality apprenticeship as the lifeblood of
any industry. However, the key to competence
is the gradual build-up of experience over time,
progressively increasing responsibility and job
complexity with appropriate support from more
experienced workers.
They say you only start learning to drive after
passing your test. Becoming competent is the
same thing. Whether it’s a trade or a degree
graduate, you wouldn’t give the tradesperson a
complex project such as a high-rise building or a
graduate the CEO role the day after receiving the
qualification certificate.
So, what about assessing competence? As
described above, there are multiple routes into
the job role. So, the competence assessment
needs to be flexible and a key element is exploring
a person’s experience.
This is the key area for the Competent Person
Schemes’ Mandatory Technical Competence (MTC).
It sets a framework for assessing an individual’s
skills, knowledge, behaviours and critically, their
experience. You can’t sit an MTC the day after
gaining a qualification – on-the-job experience
is required. Generally, the assessment requires
structured questioning, a professional discussion
to explore work experience and knowledge (both
technical and soft skills), and an observation in the
workplace of skills and behaviours.
Another key difference between qualification
and competence is that a qualification is a
point in time, in many cases, it can be more
of a memory test than anything else; whereas
competence requires ongoing assessment to
ensure that a person remains competent. I feel
that competence relates more to ‘understanding’
what, why and how you are doing a task rather
than just remembering how to do it. After all,
skills develop over time, required knowledge,
and expected behaviours change over time
and these all feed your understanding of your
role. Competence assessments often identify
additional training that is required which can
often be fulfilled with short courses designed for
specific common gaps or changing needs.
Qualification and competence assessments both
have their place, but they are different things
and should be treated as such. This is key to
knowing yourself, your personnel, and the persons
in your industry.
Contact Certass Trade Association:
01292 292 095
certassta.co.uk
52 T I JANUARY 2024 PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST