Background Bovis Lend Lease is the construction arm of a large property and construction group, Lend Lease, who are committed to ensuring an incident and injury-free workplace comprising 1600 people nationally. In partnership with Sydney Community College, and funded by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, this project up-skills and qualifies the staff of Bovis Lend Lease in occupational health and safety competencies through a guided online recognition process.
The team
Left to right:
Isma Ismail, Vocational Education and Training Manager, Sydney Community College
Colleen Harris, Director of Ergofit and OHS assessor
Ann Brady, director of Learning Lines, and e-learning consultant
Cath Brokenborough, Environmental Health and Safety Manager and Project Manager, Bovis Lend Lease
Garry Traynor, Principal, Sydney Community College
The problem
Deaths and serious injuries occur in the construction industry and occupational health and safety key performance indicators indicate that many incidents may have been avoided if staff were more skilled in their roles and responsibilities in the implementation of occupational health and safety management systems. Legislation requires Bovis Lend Lease to provide evidence that staff are trained to design, manage and carry out construction work in a manner that ensures the safety of everyone on site. Bovis Lend Lease is keen to offer a pathway from their in-house Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) competencies to Certificate IV in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). This will enable some workers to transition from trades or skilled labouring to supervisor level and will broaden their employment options. The similarity between EHS and OHS competencies means that Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is the logical way forward enabling performance gaps to be identified and addressed which will continue to drive down incident rates and non-compliance, and provide evidence of due diligence in relation to the requirements of OHS legislation.
It was anticipated that an online solution would provide participants with a supported structure in which to produce their evidence.
The solution
We developed a simple three step model which considered: the qualifications and training participants had already undertaken; their existing experience using a show and tell approach; and finally assessing the evidence. A detailed description of the solution is provided later in this case study. The starting point
Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that there is a general perception that RPL is 'too hard - it's easier to do the training' and consequently learners and educators alike tend to avoid RPL. On top of that for many people their first foray into e-learning can be a nerve-wracking experience. The short videos below explain where we began in this project.
Hear what Cath Brokenborough, Bovis Lend Lease Environmental Health and Safety Manager and Project Manager, thought about e-learning at the beginning of the project.
Colleen described her experience of RPL as cumbersome and time consuming from both the learner and facilitator perspective. Colleen explains below why she engaged with this project in spite of her reservations and adds some reflections on the experience.
Hear the thoughts of Isma Ismail, Vocational Education and Training Manager from Sydney Community College, about RPL at the beginning of the project.
The development process
The development process consisted of the following:
- mapping Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) competencies and in-house Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) competencies against the the units of competency in the Cert IV in OHS
- identifying and mapping in-house training against the Cert IV in OHS
- identifying a range of documents which participants could access easily and provide as evidence of competency.
- designing an online strategy
- building the website
The mapping process was a complex job which took approximately 2 weeks for two people to complete. The process enabled Bovis Lend Lease to fine tune their in-house training to meet the requirements of the Certificate IV in Occupational Health and Safety. The mapping process resulted in a list of in-house competencies and training courses which many employees were likely to have attended and/or attained. This list became the self-assessment questionnaire and the beginning of the RPL process.
The next step was to identify a range of documentation which most employees could easily produce as evidence of competence. The documents ranged across all levels within the organisation and were compiled in a Word document and given familiar names used commonly within the organisation. This document became a downloadable file on the website.
The technology
Moodle was the technology selected for the site. Moodle was already in use within the RTO and there was no reason to introduce another technology.
The self-assessment questions were developed in the Feedback feature in Moodle and simply ask participants whether they have attended training or gained EHS competencies. Participants respond either 'Yes' or 'No' to each question. The Feedback feature exports the data into an Excel Spreadsheet which produces a table showing Bovis Lend Lease’s in-house EHS competencies and a range of external qualifications against the participant names.
The 'Details' Sheet in the Excel spreadsheet is then copied into another spreadsheet containing some formulas which identify whether a 'Yes' of 'No' response has been entered for each participant. The formulas are designed to automate the production of individual Action Plan for each participant. The formula is depicted below.
The Action Plan leads the learners to a series of tasks they must complete (see left), or they might be asked to attend some upcoming in-house training, or a combination of these two options. Only those tasks which are relevant to the learner were accessible. The tasks are housed within Moodle.Each task is linked to one of the nine units of competency in the Certificate IV in OHS. The tenth task is for any other relevant evidence such as a resume.
Within each task participants can upload their evidence (using a Moodle assignment) and respond to some questions about each piece of evidence (using essay questions in a Moodle quiz). The questions confirm their understanding of the purpose of each document.
Implementation
Our pilot introduced participants to the online environment in a face to face induction. The induction was well attended and the response was positive. Participants were asked to complete the RPL process within three weeks - a very short time frame and very few completed within the three weeks.
Support was provided during this time through an online forum. The forum was used mainly for technical questions of which there were very few. On the whole participants contacted Colleen (the assessor) or Cath (the Bovis Lend Lease EHS Manager) about content related questions.
Hear what Cath has to say about her role in supporting participants.
Colleen discusses the importance of the initial face to face induction and how that created a human connection in the online process which enabled learners to confidently contact her with questions. Below she discusses her experience of online assessment.
Colleen went on to explain that both herself and many of the learners preferred to communicate via email. She would post feedback on the Moodle but follow up with an email, again in a effort to maintain a personal connection with each learner. She believes that feedback from the Moodle may have been perceived as auto-generated content rather than something she had written.
The results
Feedback from participants has been extremely positive. Some examples are:
- the face to face workshop was well constructed and helpful
- the learner guide was useful and easy to read
- the site was simple and accessible
- locating appropriate evidence was easy
- the level of support was more than adequate
What follows are some quotes from our group:
"The project has enabled me to get a formal recognised qualification in OHS. Being able to take advantage of prior knowledge along with confirming that our internal courses are giving us the right level of competency is good for all"
"The only real improvement to be made would be in the time allowed to complete the course, finding enough time, whilst still managing the normal workload could be eased with a longer course duration"
"I wouldn’t improve much on the course as it was well organized and well presented by all involved. There was plenty of help, if and when required"
"The challenging part was managing my time to fit the course and materials into my already busy work schedule, as it took time to put all the information together and do the EHS Modules. "
Within 4-5 weeks 12 of our 15 participants had successfully attained a full Certificate IV in Occupational Health and Safety.
This very simple solution using Moodle’s basic features and an Excel spreadsheet has proved to be very effective.
Final thoughts....
Cath gives advice to other organisations who may wish to implement an RPL pathway for their staff.
Isma compares a paper-based RPL system with an online RPL process
Colleen explains how her own, quite negative, past experience of RPL motivated her to develop an accessible process for the learners and describes the project as a major success.
Downloadable examples from our site and contact details for the team are available here. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment