Trio of success

11 January 2011

IECEx Certificate of Personnel Competence

The first three people to sign up with Baseefa for the IECEx Certificate of Personnel Competence for personnel working in hazardous areas made the grade recently- and were delighted to receive their certificates from Baseefa's Managing Director Ron Sinclair MBE.

Mark Bell of Hazardous Technical Services and Ian Harrison from Pyroban both demonstrated competence in 2 units, while Anders Jensen of Sweden succeeded in gaining his award in 6 units.

In summer 2010, Baseefa became the only provider in the world with permission to certify all 10 Units of Competence under the new IECEx CoPC scheme.

"As the only IEC Ex CB approved to provide Certificates of Personnel Competence in all 10 units, we can offer a complete one-stop shop for the certification of personnel competency for owners, plant operators and individuals - a service which cannot be matched by any other IECEx ExCB," said Ron Sinclair.

"We feel that we've developed a really efficient process for this now, backed up by our new competence website, which means we can respond effectively to the logistical challenge of dealing with worldwide demand. We have many more people already going through the pre-assessment process and we expect a steady stream of participants to soon follow in the footsteps of our three trailblazers!''

The three men completed their assessment over an intensive three-day session at Tameside College, and have now achieved this important new seal of approval for those working in hazardous areas.

Anders Jensen, who is a consulting engineer, said he had gone through the assessment in response to increasing client and customer demand.

"This is a worldwide certificate recognised by many different countries and my major client Siemens will expect those working for them to have this qualification. Success in these six units demonstrates to all my clients that I have achieved the relevant standards and assures them that they can trust my work."

Mark Bell, whose company is involved in electrical design and risk assessment, said that, for him, the certification process was important in demonstrating his professional skills.

"There is an increasing drive towards demonstrating competence in work in hazardous areas. I have got extensive experience in the area, but I was keen to get a formal qualification, both to prove what I already knew and to help me fill in any gaps, and this experience has helped me do that."

Ex-solutions-Pyroban Group specialises in hazardous area training, consultancy, and converting equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. Ian Harrison, Process Safety Systems Specialist, was keen to demonstrate his experience and knowledge in this area with an internationally recognised competence qualification.

"Baseefa is the only company in the world that could offer me the opportunity to complete these two units together. When operating in the global marketplace, it is essential competence in hazardous areas can be independently verified by a professional body such as Baseefa. I'm sure the CoPC scheme will gather pace and, with more publicity, customers will start to specify the requirements as a benchmark of hazardous area competence for industry in the future. It's been a really useful, positive experience and I may well be back to undertake more of the units with Baseefa in the future."

The new IECEx Certificate of Personnel Competence scheme offers plant owners and operators, for the first time, the opportunity to use a worldwide standard for judging whether staff or contractors - at both management and technician level - required to perform duties such as hazardous area classifications, selection and installation, inspection and maintenance or repair and overhaul of Ex equipment together with the design of plant, are truly competent in the selected discipline.

And to help make finding qualified personnel easier, Baseefa has also developed a new competence website www.competency.baseefa.com which brings together details of qualified personnel throughout the world, allowing website users to find the support they need with just a couple of clicks.