What is ISO 14001 Training, Competence and Awareness?
ISO 14001 training, competence and awareness relates to guidance and educational material that should be followed by staff on the company’s environmental strategy and objectives. It is a process that helps organizations to identify and control their environmental aspects and impacts. Organizations that implement an ISO 14001 environmental management system must provide training for their employees on the system and how it works. The training should cover the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard, the organization’s environmental procedures and how employees can contribute to the company’s environmental management system. The benefits of ISO 14001 training and awareness programs include improved environmental performance, reduced environmental liabilities, and increased employee understanding of the environmental management system.
How Important is a Person’s Competency in the Workplace?
The competence of personnel is vital to enable a business to operate effectively and safely. Where a level of training, competency or a certificate is required to perform a work activity, no person should be permitted to undertake that activity without an adequate level of training, competency, or the necessary certificate being attained.
How Can You Determine if Someone is Competent?
Competence refers to a person’s ability to do their jobs safely and effectively. In general terms this can be defined as per below.
Competency is a combination of attributes, including skills, training and experience, relevant to a particular work task or function that enables a person to undertake that work task safely or discharge that function by following company expectations.
A competent person is a person who has acquired, through a combination of training, qualification or experience, the knowledge and skill necessary to undertake their work safely or discharge their function by following company expectations.
A competency assessment is the process of collecting and evaluating evidence (either an internal assessment and/or an assessment authorized by external assessors) to determine if an individual is competent to perform at the required level in his/her job.
Management’s Responsibilities with Training, Competence and Awareness
Management of an organization are responsible for planning and the required initiatives and activities that are needed for a given budgeted year or timeframe. Management are the fundamental component for the identification of a competency to enable staff to undertake their work to the organization’s expectations. A training, competence and awareness procedure can be vital to a management team, as it can outline their responsibilities such as:
- Identifying and planning for training needs.
- Providing guidance on the objectives and strategic direction.
- Implementing training initiatives and activities to enable competence and awareness.
- Ensuring that responsibilities and required competencies are measured.
- Facilitating training, as necessary.
- Determining the frequency of refresher training.
- Maintaining records of qualifications, competencies and training.
How to Determine What Training, Competence and Awareness is Needed?
Conducting a training needs analysis is a great way to determine what training is required to enable workers to competently perform their roles. A training needs analysis can consider the following matters, inclusive of:
- Position responsibilities.
- Mandatory legal training requirements.
- Statutory licensing requirements.
- Known or anticipated risks and opportunities.
- Current procedures or the equivalent.
- Organizational requirements.
- Standards and legislation.
A training needs analysis should be reviewed periodically for all position types and updated to reflect any new positions created. The training needs analysis should be updated if:
- There are changes in risks or opportunities.
- There are changes in the work practices or measures to control risk.
- There are changes in roles and responsibilities or organizational arrangements.
- There are changes to legislation.
- There is new or additional information from manufacturers, suppliers or other relevant bodies that may impact personnel, products or services.
Establishing a Training Plan for Competence and Awareness
Once training needs have been identified and prioritized, management can then determine and source the appropriate training programs. Once a training provider is identified and their services engaged, the training should be scheduled, and subsequent details recorded. Training effectiveness should be monitored and reviewed during an appraisal process and by completion of a training course evaluation checklist.
ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Training
When it comes to the requirements of ISO 14001 2015 standard all personnel should receive periodic environmental management system awareness training, appropriate to their responsibilities and this should be provided to ensure that personnel are aware of:
- The importance of conforming to policies, objectives, targets and procedures.
- Any significant impacts, actual or potential, on their work activities.
- The importance of environmental management.
- Their roles and responsibilities in achieving conformance with policies, environmental objectives, targets and procedures.
- The potential consequences of a departure from specified operational procedures.
After ISO 14001 environmental management system training, an attendance record should be completed and signed by each attendee and retained on file as documented information.
Contents of this ISO 14001 Training, Competence and Awareness Procedure
- Approval.
- Purpose.
- Scope.
- Terms and Definitions.
- Roles and Responsibilities.
- Procedures.
- Training, Competencies and Awareness Process Overview.
- Training, Competencies and Awareness Process Flowchart.
- Induction Training.
- Training Needs Analyses.
- Training Plan.
- Management System Training.
- Refresher Training.
- Performance Review.
- Training Records.
- Related Procedures, Forms and Documents.
- Review Criteria.
- Record Management.
Why Choose to Buy this ISO 14001 Competence Training and Awareness Procedure
This 10-page ISO 14001 training, competence and awareness procedure template can assist you ensure that the training, competencies and awareness needed to meet internal or external requirements are defined. The procedure can help you ensure that actions are taken to enable a structured and consistent methodology for identifying and verifying environmental training.
The procedure also defines the responsibilities for planning, reporting and retaining records associated with environmental training, competencies and awareness.
After purchasing this template you will be able to:
- Very easily edit and customize the template to create your own procedure.
- Apply your own style, format and brand to the procedure.
- Use it in any industry or sector regardless of the size or type of organization.
Availability and Use of this ISO 14001 Competence Training and Awareness Procedure
- This procedure is accessible to you right now by clicking the ‘Buy Now’ button.
- The procedure will be delivered to you in fully editable Microsoft Word format for immediate and full use in your business.
- There are no subscriptions, contracts or ongoing costs.
