Training as a 'tick box' exercise to satisfy arbitrary regulatory requirements is a waste of both time and financial resources. Also, a 3 to 5 year interval is too long to detect and correct deteriorating performance, not that an external training course is capable of doing that anyway. In NZ we have no legal requirement for an OSH Certificate, but it is a normal industry practice.
Coda Group have moved to an annual internal on-job assessment by trained assessors, and remedial training is only required when the need for it is identified. The internal assessment looks at all aspects of the Operator's performance, not just their operation of the MHE. Remedial training is targeted to specific individual training needs as opposed to the '1 size fits all' model of external training courses. An added advantage of internal assessment and remedial training is that our night shift workers can be assessed and trained during their normal shift time, eliminating the fatigue aspects of sending them to an external daytime course.
We are in our second year of this programme and it has successfully raised the general performance standards of the MHE Operators in our Freight Stations and reduced MHE related incidents almost to zero.