The Mining Industry Skills Centre this week launched the Mining Industry Transportability Scheme, which allows for transportation of skills from site to site, reducing the need for full reassessment.

MISC said the scheme will play a vital role in streamlining the reassessment process in a time of significant skilling issues in the resources industry, whilst enhancing the standard of assessment for the industry as a whole.

Developed in consultation with industry representatives, the initial phase of the scheme is aimed at the contracting workforce, although similar benefits can be gained by minesite employees.

MISC chief Derek Hunter said that the scheme has received considerable interest from a number of mining industry organisations across the coal and metalliferous sectors.

“The Mining Industry Transportability Scheme aims to significantly decrease the time and money spent in reassessing employees and contractors, but more importantly, in a time of skilling challenges in the resources industry, the scheme ensures that each participant is skilled to the predetermined assessment standards,” Hunter said.

The scheme allows skills to be transported within participating organisation’s minesites. Currently only Queensland companies are involved, but MISC plans to expand the scheme across state borders so skills can be transported state to state within participating organisations.

The scheme involves the use of detailed assessment standards, which identify the “common” assessment requirements as agreed to by the participating minesites, to deem a person competent.

Personnel involved in the scheme have their details and previous assessment information stored in a central database which participants have access to, thus limiting the potential for misuse.

This database, managed by MISC, also provides the industry with a tool to validate the transportable skills.

To date, more than 20 individual minesites have registered their interest to use the scheme on their sites.