Australian Safety and Learning Systems

MNC04 Coal Training Package

The Queensland Coal Mining Safety and Health Act requires training to be based on endorsed components of the current Coal Training Package MNC04. ASLS has this package included in its scope of registration as an RTO to Certificate III level, plus registration for MNCG1002A (old MNC.G2.A) Implement and apply risk management processes to Certificate IV level.

Who will benefit?

This form of endorsed, competency-based training provides mineworkers with a recognized, portable qualification, accepted throughout Australia.

Where competence has been achieved in accordance with the endorsed standards, but does not meet the requirements of a qualification, a Statement of Attainment can be issued for the competencies successfully achieved. These can be combined with any additional competencies achieved later. Together they will build towards the awarding of a qualification.

Benefits for employers

The mining industry assessment system:

• provides benchmarks for employee skills, knowledge and competence
• is a mechanism for formal recognition of skills and knowledge developed at work
• assists in the process of multi-skilling and cross-skilling
• helps to identify employees with the required mix of knowledge and skills
• makes recruitment more reliable and consistent
• sets workplace standards and serves as the basis of performance appraisal
• assists in specification of the skills level required of contractors
• supports due diligence responsibilities
• assists in meeting legal and regulatory training requirements.

Benefits for employees

The mining industry assessment system:

• provides formal recognition of competencies developed at work
• leads to portable nationally recognised qualifications
• assists in identification of career opportunities in the mining industry
• helps focus training on individual needs
• assists in the process of multi-skilling and cross-skilling
• offers flexibility, so people can learn at their own pace and choose the structured and/or work-based training and assessment environment that suits them best, and takes into consideration location and isolation for people working in the mining industry.

Course content

Conduct of this form of training must be based on actual workplace conditions and will:

• reflect options to meet changing situations to avoid entrenching traditional approaches to work organisation and job design; and
• provide maximum flexibility to allow enterprises and individuals to select combinations of units of competency relevant to their training needs.

ASLS will customise this training to meet client needs. The purpose of customisation of qualifications is to provide training that is tailored to the needs of specific workplaces. The opportunity for customisation of coal qualifications has been provided though mandatory and electives units of competency in each qualification.

The mandatory units provide national consistency in core knowledge and skills. The elective units of competency provide the flexibility required by different enterprises and/or training situations. Each qualification has a wide range of electives that allow a choice to meet specific work requirements.

Most qualifications provide the option to select a small number of elective units, relevant to the job function, from elsewhere in the Coal Training Package or from other endorsed Training Packages. This allows for the situation where a candidate's range of work functions includes the mandatory and core functions in the coal industry but also includes specialist functions performed in other industries, but not included in this Training Package.

Learning Partnerships

Under the Australian Qualification Training Framework, ASLS may enter into partnerships with mines for delivery and assessment within our scope of registration.

Where this is done, ASLS will have a formal agreement with the organisation that provides the training and/or assessment under its name. The agreement will specify how all parties will discharge their responsibilities for ensuring the quality of the training and/or assessment conducted on its behalf, including the qualification requirements for delivery and assessment.

ASLS retains has full responsibility for the quality and outcomes of any training or assessment conducted on its behalf, and it must maintain a register of all such agreements.

Assessment

Assessment leading to an AQF qualification or Statement of Attainment may follow a training and assessment pathway, an assessment-only pathway, or a combination of the two. All assessments, by any pathway, must comply with the AQTF assessment requirements for RTOs. Each of these assessment pathways leads to full recognition under the AQF, the critical concern is that the candidate is competent, not how the competency was acquired.

The assessment provisions offered by ASLS range from full assessment through assessment by mine personnel (acting for ASLS) to the RPL process.