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standards and working practices evolve. A certificate gained several years ago remains useful evidence, but it might bear little resemblance to the person’ s capability today.
Our research shows how heavily the industry still relies on certificates. Among respondents who believed they could evidence their SKEB, 85 per cent cited training certificates. That concerns me because evidence of training can too easily become shorthand for evidence of competence.
We need a fuller and more current picture, bringing together training, experience, practical capability, and behaviours in a form that individuals and employers can easily maintain and use. I have very little appetite for another administrative exercise that looks impressive on paper but makes no difference to decisions on site.
What I would like to see is a clearer way for somebody to understand how they measure up against the recognised competence framework for their role: what is expected of them, what evidence they already have and where there are gaps to address.
That record should develop with the individual as they gain experience, change employers or move into different roles, rather than having to be pieced together or rebuilt each time.
Employers need that visibility across their workforce too. Those responsible for allocating safety-critical work should be able to see where people sit against the relevant standards, whether their evidence is current and where further development is needed, without pulling information from different systems, spreadsheets and folders.
There is a useful parallel with the golden thread. We have accepted that important building safety information needs to remain accurate, accessible and useful over time.
I think the information we rely on to make decisions about people’ s competence deserves the same attention.
From what I see on the fire door safety front line, people are ready for that. The people I meet understand the responsibility that comes with their work and want to do it properly. They need a clearer route through what can still be a complicated landscape of frameworks, evidence, training and ongoing development.
We’ ve done a lot of work defining what competence should look like. The next step is giving individuals and employers a practical way of applying those definitions in the real world, where decisions have to be made about who is competent to carry out particular work and people need to demonstrate what they can safely and competently do.
For me, that’ s how we start turning regulation into reality. ■
Jonny Millard www. ukfiredoortraining. com
UK Fire Door Training is the industry’ s leading provider, created in 2021, with a vision to improve the standard of fire door training in the UK. The team consists of qualified teachers, carpenters, and fire door inspectors who have been working in the education and fire door industry for a combined total of 50 years. The team aims to improve fire door awareness and competency through industry leading training courses.
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