WORK IN PROGRESS

Three points that needed to be covered:

The interviews with the mentors had its challenges over the approach on how to structure interview questions with respect to the level of the position we had to interview. The latest on this, was the amicable agreement to postpone for tommorrow morning with a plan to commence around 09h00; in order to briefly give feedback to Michael for him to catch-up. Reece was also given the background of the interview details and will be ready sometime next week, Wednesday. The interview was solely based on assignment on Tab 4 of Riskmaq.

Concerning the restructuring, we had them completed and ready for tommorrow's interviews with namely, Francois and Carel respectively.

The interview results obviously turned out differently from what we had earlier planned the outcome to be, since due to this it took us off the interview target we had in mind. With the idea to thoroughly implement the advice provided by the mentors in this regard, we then postponed and changed the interview approach.

I hope you are doing well in the conference, wishing you well!

Abram

RCAT 3 Days Course

Root Cause Analysis Technique (RCAT) is the name for the course I underwent this week, beginning on Monday up to Wednesday the 18th March 2009. The course content comprises of 50% material on theory and another 50% practical requirements for a successful pass. It focuses much on Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA) outcomes for further investigating the immediate causes of incidents identified e.g. occupations, tasks and steps thereof. Then by conducting RCAT you make extra effort to interrogate the findings for reasons why incidents happened up until they confess: leading you to their root causes.

I found it very challenging to structure questions during interiviews for investigation purposes, when it regarded collecting data from people as a source of evidence. However, it was fun to learn what a difference it makes, especially towards me in person, the feeling that I would be saving lives by conducting incident investigations soothes my heart.

Remember, this course has positive references for being a comprehensive tool in addressing occupational incidents with necessary; yet direct measures to assist management enforce such measures to bring about long-lasting loss preventitive and corrective solutions globally. It is widely used by IRCA in different industries locally (South Africa) and world-wide due to its efficiency for addressing nonconformities or non-compliance related issues for SHEQ systems effectively.

You know what? I am going to use it to that effect too...that is the reason why I enrolled for the course; what about you?.

UMANYANO SAFECONEX AFRICA 2009

Thank you for the invitation to prepare PowerPoint presentations for participating in the above titled event scheduled for the 12 - 13 March 2009, at Indaba Hotel. The involvement of putting a lot of thought to the RISKMAQ (Risk Management Qualification) Part 1 course(s) module's details at service provider-client level, got me thinking differently about the professional development programme (PDP). This being possible because I being directly involved with studying the course modules currently myself, realise that I am the actual end-product after completing the degree by being a professional with a balanced-development in both SHEQ and Legal issues relating to risk management. And that is at the heart of the PDP aims and objectives.

I saw how the RISKMAQ could do more for me when I started explaining it to curious potential clients. Personally, I think IRCA and University of Free State should brace themselves; mainly for the positive response most people are going to give to this degree qualification in terms of dealing with high volume of enrolment numbers and capacity to handle them.

Predominantly, more senior people according to my observation will either enroll themselves or because of having a lot in their hands will make a way possible for their subordinates to attend. Other than that, most self-employed (consultants) people are showing keen interest and because of money related constraints, only a few will go for certificate-by-certificate root in order to obtain it.

In summary, the course looked too expensive to some; yet however the case when we compared the current costs versus academic quality the qualification worths for possible future returns, no one could argue that saving lives is more priceless than the initial expenses for the qualification.

Professional competence got a high rating from the previously disgruntled for course expenses, followed by those who want to be legally compliant as individuals pertaining to their duties in SHEQ day-to-day activities and lastly a few viewed their individual competence and compliance with the law will put their respective companies in the same friendly relations with the law and best practicing institutions.

Abram

Professional Development Programme (PDP) Employee

IRCA (Pty) Ltd

PRACTICAL SITE OBSERVATIONS

The lat week Friday had some delays which saw a lot of work put on hald as a result. We had a big place to compact which due to dampness could not allow for the paving to commence for need of more soil and rocks to fill the place. We had to watch what other people call the "rush and wait" phenomena affecting construction business take the entire production to ransom. It provided a learning that on-site practicalities are more real as compared to the idealistic nature of our learning in class.

We dealt with the lack of water in doing some of the activities; when the nearby river provided its services especially when it came to putting more water into the ground for compacting on drier parts of the ground.

The sun got us dancing for its music, trying to hide ourselves in an open space was no child's play. Eventually the fact that conducting SHEQ related activities got one outside into the mercies of the weather became apparently clear.

More on this later!

Abram

PRACTICAL SITE OBSERVATIONS

I found it quite different comparing training on a particular course with doing a practical task on the same concepts.

The difference it made was for instance when I had tried driving a bobcat at Strydom Park, where I often had to labour/and observe the health and safety programme, plans or systems are in place as well as practically doing some where possible. Ironically, the conducisive environment provided for practical learning did not fully extenguish hazardous activities from taking place, because I almost had an accident while in the process of learning how to operate a bobcat, which happened to be one of the mobile equipments used.

The fact that there is no absolute risk free environment is absolutely true for every industry regardless of the core business of the company. It looks so simple what other people are doing for instance people doing labour, yet come to do what they are doing you find it pretty interesting to find that we can learn from them too.

I had observed that people may learn a lot from those actively practicing SHEQ related activities if we were fully aware of the fact that leading by example is the best way to teach in demonstrating the concepts we talk about.

Boring sometimes as it may have been, there were also exciting moments when I saw the real essence of significantly contributing to the guy's safety. It happened when I chated with the guys on their safety on the site; being taken seriously by being listened to. Some guys would toil without personal protective equipment (PPE) and so forth.

At the end of the day I learned how to do the SHEQ related duties better; whilst on the other hand some people learned how to do their work better by aligning their duties with SHEQ requirements. Hopefully, there were no fatalities reported other than near-missess...in the process and I hope it stays that way all the time.

Chat again with you later!

Abram