In 1992 with the introduction of the Health & Safety in Employment Act in New Zealand all Scaffolding Certificates of Competence current at that time became unlawful because they had been issued under the Construction Act.
From 1992 to 1995, when the Health & Safety Regulations came into force, no new Certificates of Competence could be issued because there was no legislation to issue them under.
Thus in 1995 there was an urgent need to issue new Certificates to those whose Certificate had expired, and to issue new Certificates to those who had earned them in the intervening years.
It was also agreed by all interested parties, including OSH that the new "roll-over" Certificates of Competence would be an interim solution only and that with the next renewal of Certificates of Competence in 2000, only those with a National Certificate in Scaffolding would be issued with a Certificate of Competence.
As a consequence of the above, the National Certificate structure was drawn up primarily to allow fully trained and experienced Scaffolders an easy transition into the new system. It was felt that the bulk of scaffolders would require very little training at that stage, and as a consequence
- Provision was made for just one National Certificate in Scaffolding, with strands in Basic, Advanced, and Suspended Scaffolding;
- A trainee could enter the system at any level
- Unit Standards were written containing a huge number of credits and which were quite hard to assess.
Now the industry has matured to the stage where
- Almost without exception trainees are totally new to scaffolding
- We are therefore able to cater for a truly progressive career path in the Industry
- We are able to write new unit standards which are much smaller and therefore easier to assess
- We are able to write unit standards which focus less on equipment and more on the task.
A copy of the broad strategic path for Scaffolding training can be seen here
Much of the work has been completed and the first new qualification - National Certificate in Elementary Scaffolding will be registered on the 16th of January 2008. Intermediate, Advanced and Suspended National Certificates will follow shortly.