To be … or not to be (competent)

Danny Maron -
Safety First
- 13 Mar 2008 ( #351 )
4 min read
Danny Maron, owner/trainer of Ideal Forklift Training in Canada's national capital, is an independent consultant, providing the education lift truck operators require, to businesses and government, to minimise the chance of incidents in the workplace. Before founding Ideal in 2000, Danny was a trainer at Canada's largest forklift dealer.
When determining whether someone is competent to operate the forklift, is it simply a pass or fail? According to the law in the province of Ontario, Canada - and probably most countries around the world; competence certification involves a record of training submitted by the trainer that must include the name(s) of the participant(s), the class of forklift, the level of competency, the name and affiliation of the assessor, and the date (of training).

But the level of competence is not just a "pass or fail" issue.

Let me give you an example of a course I did in February 2006 for a company which, for this column, shall remain nameless. It's a smallish company with a manufacturing plant consisting of two bays - a smaller one with freestanding racking and a larger space with quite a bit of machinery.

After completing the theory portion of the course, we moved into the smaller bay to commence the practical training. It was getting late, it was getting dark and the temperature outside was -20C. The surface outside was frozen, with hard packed snow and ice, and some bare pavement. Conditions were not ideal for testing, but we had a job to do. I asked each operator to grab a small load on a pallet on the unsecured racking unit (I know, I know) and, while following all the safety rules, transport the pallet onto the floor in the neighbouring bay. Then they were required to do the same in reverse, and return the pallet from where it had been retrieved.

One candidate who appeared experienced did the test with confidence, in a reasonable amount of time. The others, either with some, or very limited experience, took longer, erred more frequently and didn't score as well, but were passable.

Due to the weather conditions outside, I was unable to have each of them perform the obstacle course that allows me to appreciate their true talents, so I was quite uneasy deeming any of them competent. However, were they all failures? Not to me, they weren't.

My final determination was based on the following criteria: If they showed me the confidence and ability to perform such a task in a reasonable amount of time, I gave them a site-specific certification, meaning that they were equipped for whatever they were required to do at this shop. And for those who showed me much less, a low-level certification was issued, qualifying them for only menial tasks. Duties such as time-sensitive tasks and loading/unloading trailers are not recommended until such time they gain the much-needed exposure on the forklift and it would be the determination of the supervisor to monitor their skills, and decide when he felt that they could progress to the more difficult tasks.

I couldn't fail them because they all exceeded the minimum written scores, and they all achieved my minimum 85%. So, I had no option but to pass them all, to the varying degrees.

Simple enough, and I do this every time I train. That is the procedure I live by.

The problem for me was that the client wanted all of the staff 'certified' (deemed competent), and would not pay my bill unless they were certified. I was horrified that someone would ignore my professional opinion, and decide on their own, based on what is convenient for them, how competent their staff are. This wasn't the first time clients have refused to pay unless staff were deemed competent.

In this case, I returned in April, on a bright, sunny day. No snow or ice - and only dry pavement. Temperatures were hovering around 15C. I tested them and determined that they were competent to operate the forklift.

My mistake is not taking payment in advance, but that is not the moral of the story.

Can someone be partially competent to operate a forklift, performing only certain tasks? Because there are no standards issued by governments, it is up to the discretion of the trainer to make that determination. At the end of the day, it will be the trainer's signature that is flashed in front of the government officers, so we take responsibility and let the company management team off scott-free.

I believe that it shouldn't be pass or fail, but rather that competence is a sliding scale and all certification should indicate the level of competence of the driver.
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