WorkSafe’s release of new proposals for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the extractive sector is a welcome attempt to address industry issues around current inflexibility in the system.

As a signal of a genuine attempt to engage on the CPD proposals, Board of Examiners (BOE) chair Paul Hunt briefed last week’s MinEx Board meeting.

Over 1.5 hours he, BOE members and WorkSafe staff outlined a string of proposed changes following on from earlier industry consultation.

A key proposed change is that the minimum annual hours requirement will be removed. This recognises that people leave the industry to have children, get sick, train or move on and return. Instead, you will have five years to meet your CPD requirements.

There are also some ongoing conditions proposed:

• You can do a third of your 5-year total hours in one year

• You can take a two-year break from doing CPD

• Once the five-year period is over you can’t carry any CPD hours earned into the next five years.

• Structured field trips will become formal hours – events such as those at the QuarryNZ conference can qualify for formal hours but a training outcome will be required - not just a visit to a site down the road
• Podcasts on extractive issues will be regarded as informal learning
• And claimable hours for industry events/seminars/workshops will better reflect the actual learning hours.