QUALIFIED ELECTRICAL WORKER CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

This qualified electrical worker certification program will identify and address deficiencies in skills of those employees exposed to the hazards of electrical energy and will assure that their skills are maintained current. This skill assessment specifically addresses the qualification of an employee per OSHA Subpart S. This skill assessment does not address the certification of an employee per OSHA subpart R.

SCOPE

This assessment program is mandatory for all individuals exposed to the hazards of electrical energy who are employed at all domestic company locations including wholly-owned facilities as well as affiliate and leased facilities where the company has responsibility for facility operations through an operating (or similar) agreement.

APPLICATION

There will be different skill levels and assesment based on work activities, but there are common skills sets required to do most electrical work. This electrician skills assessment covers job and equipment descriptions found in typical plants and facilities. The following skills are common (except Potentially Hazardous Switching) to employees working with electrical energy:

• Repair Work on Energized Equipment
• Repair Work on De-energized Equipment
• Diagnostic Work
• Test for Isolation and Verification of de-energization
• Install/Remove Grounds
• Installation/Removal of fuses on de-energized switch/fuse with bus energized.
• Testing de-energized electrical equipment
• Potentially Hazardous Switching
• Normal Switching
  

Formal qualification process for certain work activities:

• OSHA mandates that our employees doing electrical work be qualified for the work that they are doing.
• It is a goal that this skill assessment will identify those areas where employees are not qualified to perform electrical tasks above 50 volts.
• The site has the responsibility of qualifying employees that are identified as not qualified.
  

Application for 600 volts and greater

Working with voltages greater than 600 volts is generally referred to as power distribution work and requires different skills sets and assessment.

Application to instrument mechanics.

This skill assessment contains an instrumentation assessment. The instrumentation portion of the skill assessment process is based on sites that have a defined electrical and instrument craft. The instrument portion of the assessment focuses on those areas where instrument mechanics may be exposed to electrical hazards above or equal to 50 volts. Some sites have combined or are in the process of combining the
electrical and instrumentation crafts. This assessment will aid those sites by identifying areas where some E/I employee skills may be common.

Application to contractors.

It shall be the responsibility of contract services or location contractor management to review electrical contractor qualifications/training procedures to insure electrical contractors can perform safely and according to the company’s electrical work practices. This skill assessment is not designed to evaluate contractors.

IMPLEMENTATION

Each applicable new-hire must have a skills assessment and Employee Assessment completed within 3 months of hiring. Each applicable employee who has completed their skills training and assessment program must have their skills re-assessed periodically thereafter and any remediation training provided in a timely manner.

DOCUMENTATION

Each site shall maintain all qualification levels for each employee for the duration of their employment. The documentation shall include, as a minimum: employee skill assessment results, and unit needs assessment. As each employee’s qualification level changes, the documentation must be updated to reflect the change.

SKILL ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The skills assessment process includes the following steps:

Step 1 Needs Assessment

Location management with the assistance of Training Technology must develop a Needs Assessment which identifies the minimum types of skills and quantity of electrical workers required to meet the objectives of maintenance, operation, and project work, as appropriate, for each of the unit and plant support systems. The Needs Assessment should be prepared in sufficient detail to identify all of the skills necessary to perform electrical work in each given work assignment area. As a general rule, the Needs Assessment must include some or all of the skills identified in the self-assessment but should generally not go beyond this scope, except in the case of site-specific or unit-specific equipment.

Step 2 Self-Assessment

The self-assessment is a list of equipment and tasks that an electrician and/or instrument mechanic may use/perform either on a daily basis or sometime during their employment. After each task there is a “Y”, “S”,
“N”. Listed below is the definition of each.

After employees assess themselves, a First-Line or Immediate Supervisors (someone who knows that
person’s ability) will review the self-assessment and comment. This activity is a very important check on the validity of the Self-Assessment activity. The Self-Assessment is used as a tool to help determine who gets training on a given subject and not as a tool to “fire or promote”.

Step 3 Skill Test

The Skill Test (Either electrical skill test and/or instrument skill test) is a compilation of questions that refer to fundamental skills that are needed to complete everyday electrical and instrument jobs. The test will generally have between 50 to 70 questions requiring from 1 to 2 hours to complete. The questions do not address all equipment at all sites. They are questions about typical electrical equipment that is common to
each site. In addition to the individual providing answers to each test question they will also be asked their degree of certainty to the correctness of their answers. It is the responsibility of each site with the assistance of Training Technology to address site-specific equipment and the need to assess employees on that equipment. The Skill Test will re-enforce information from the self-assessment. That is, it will settle areas where Technologist and craftsperson disagree or it will help prove craftsperson’s knowledge.

Step 4 Interview & Task Ranking

Interview

The purpose of the interview is to give the employee a hands-on atmosphere (their normal working environment) so the interviewers can determine whether or not the employee is qualified (category I). The interview process should ideally include an individual(s) from the Engineering or Technology Group, a first-line supervisor knowledgeable of the skill level of the employee(s), and a third-party person who is experienced in the interview process and very knowledgeable on work safety around electrical devices.

The interview questions are compilations of questions that will assist the interviewers with coming up with their own questions on different types of equipment and the construction, operation, the hazards associated with the equipment. The questions do not address all equipment at all sites but they are questions about typical electrical equipment that is common to each site. It is the responsibility of each site to address site-specific equipment and the need to assess employees on that equipment.

The interview plan is an important phase in the assessment so that the time spent interviewing the employee is spent wisely. By comparing the self-assessment and skill test, three categories generally surface.

The categories listed above can also be divided into two or additional categories with more specific detail if needed depending on each company's needs.

Employees in category I and II must be interviewed to verify their status. Tasks where employees are a category III can be eliminated from the interview process

An employee’s final ranking will be a category I, II, or III. Management must decide if a category II or III employee should be performing the tasks in which they were ranked or restrict them from that task until
training can be provided to make them a category I. For category II employees, management must determine if those individuals will continue to perform those tasks that they are not qualified per OSHA, but could perform the task safely. The site must document the employees that are qualified (category I)
and the tasks that the employees are qualified to perform.

Task Ranking

The tasks are ranked using the Task Ranking Chart. The task ranking relates the needed skill to Frequency, the Criticality, and the Difficulty to Learn. This ranking system allows us to provide prioritize training based on the combination of the three defined areas. The higher value, the more important the task is to the safety of the employee.

With the results of the unit needs (Needs Assessment) and the task ranking, a training plan can be developed. Each site can develop their own task ranking table or utilize the following task ranking table format.

From the example above, we can see that an employee has to be qualified at multiple tasks to perform the main task safely and that DMM Test Equipment training should be done first.. This method also allows each company a way to document which task(s) are important to an employee’s safety.

Step 5 Employee Assessment

Once each employee’s skills have been assessed following the requirements of the Self-Assessment, the Skills Test, and the Interview, then location management in a given work area must balance the minimum requirements of the Needs Assessment with the skills of the employees available. Taking into consideration::

• Flexibility of the workers
• Vacation relief and call-outs
• Potential retirements
• Critical nature of certain tasks to safety and unit reliability
• Degree of equipment documentation available to workers
• Future equipment expansions or decommissioning
• General experience level of workers
  

If it is determined that a skills deficiency exists that will require skills training, then a personalized Employee Assessment must be developed for each employee who must be trained. The Employee Assessment must list the skills required of the employee (Needs Assessment), the skills the employee has mastered (category I – qualified person), and the skills the employee has yet to attain, and a timetable for training and qualification. The person responsible for the skills training of the employee will coordinate the individual’s training and progress to qualification.

Step 6 The Qualification Process (Training Needs Prioritization & Plan)

In steps 1 through 5 you determined how many people were qualified to work on the various pieces of equipment. The Qualification Process will now give you the additional qualified people that you have determined that you need to do the jobs that need done.

Skill Assessment
You have already determined skill level of each employee working with electrical energy above 50 volts. So now you know how many people are qualified to work on each piece of equipment within the plant.

Training
Each site shall be responsible and accountable for the training of employees according to the needs of the site. The training must be designed to qualify the employee. Corporate and site training resources and programs as well as outside schooling, classroom training, and on-the-job training can be utilized to complete the skills training. There must be great effort to maintain a high degree of consistency across the location. For this process to succeed there must be one individual who is responsible for the success of the
program. That individual must be able to act as a combination guidance counselor, coach, and parent to be able to give that person going through the Qualification Process the help that they need to succeed.

The equipment owner, with the help of Engineering or Technical Information about Training Technology
Services, must understand what skills the employee must have to work at their site so that the appropriate training is provided to the individual. Understanding the needs of a site is critical to the success of the skill
assessment.

Mentor Process
The mentor process will occur when the employee is given the opportunity to apply the knowledge that they have gained from the training to the real plant environment. Each week the employee should be given from one to several hours to apply the material learned during training. The amount of time will vary with the particular training that the individual is taking as well as the work load needs of the facility. The mentor process shall be for a fixed period of time (i.e., 3 months, 6 months) and will be supervised by the “coach” to be sure that the individual is getting the types of field experience to help the individual to become qualified. On-the-Job Training will specifically address those areas that are needed to qualify the employee on equipment and/or task. Mentors are typically a senior craftsman, first-line supervisor, or any other individual the site selects to fill this role.

Step 7 Re-Assessment

It will be necessary to re-assess the employee after the training and mentor process is completed. If the employee is not qualified (category II or III), then site management must decide if it is necessary to re-train and/or repeat the training and mentor process for that individual. If the employee is qualified (category I), then the tasks for which the employee is qualified must be documented.