Hi and welcome to Extend Training’s video blog series on hazardous area issues. I can’t help but wonder sometimes if the inventors of the internet would have gone ahead with it if they knew what it would be used for, but here we are in 2017 and I don’t own a cat, so we’re reduced to mining our fascinating experiences in the world of HA to generate our youtube gold. We’ll be releasing regular clips aimed at clarifying some of the more common misunderstandings in the field, so if you’re a Hazardous areas masochist you might like to subscribe to our channel. Normal people would probably rather do just about anything else, up to and including self-harm. It’s OK. We understand.
So, let’s kick our first instalment off with a quick look at one of the most common mistaken beliefs that we encounter – the idea that a person must hold an Australian electrical licence in order to hold hazardous area competencies. We’ve posted about this on facebook a few times and attracted a bit of criticism for saying it, but it’s simply not true. It’s an over-simplification of what can be a complicated discussion about pre-requisite requirements for competency units.
The reality is that holding an electrical licence is one way to meet the prerequisite requirements for the EEHA Installation and maintenance units of competency in the UEE11 training package. But there are others – Trade qualified instrument techs also meet the requirements, and so do fire and gas and security installers. And that’s just the installation and maintenance units. Electrical Engineers can get classification, design and inspection units, and even non-electrical are able to obtain the base-level “awareness” type competencies. So there is more flexibility than people commonly believe. Unfortunately that also brings more complexity, but ultimately it’s necessary, since it’s not just electrical workers who need to demonstrate competency to work in hazardous areas – other trades and general operations folks also work in the areas and may even (shock! Horror!) touch ex-rated electrical equipment from time to time. That might seem like another controversial statement, but tune in to our next clip, where we’ll have a quick rant on the difference between competency and licensing. See you then!