The Coal Competence Board has been established to improve mine safety performance by ensuring the competence of people to work safely in the New South Wales mining industry. It advises the Minister and oversees the development of competence standards and the assessment of competencies and is working on the development of a system for the maintenance of competence.

The Board was established in 2006 following the introduction of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act 2002 and Coal Mine Health and Safety Regulation 2006 and took over the work previously done by the Coal Mining Qualifications Board.

Mr John Maitland was appointed as the inaugural Chairman of the Board in 2006.

The Board has representation from the NSW Minerals Council, the CFMEU, people with expertise in the development and assessment of competence in the coal industry and senior officers from Mine Safety within the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

A secretariat service is provided by staff located within Mine Safety Performance in Industry & Investment NSW.

Discussion paper

 The Coal Competence Board has released a discussion paper for public comment to assist in establishing requirements for the maintenance of competence of certificate of competence holders under clause 173 of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Regulation 2006.

Annual Report

Download the Coal Competence Board Annual Report for 2008:

Download files	Details
2008 Coal Competence Board Annual Report		24 Kb

Key board priorities

Competence standards

Industry input is being sought to identify all coal mining functions and to then identify the set of positions for which competencies should be identified. Minimum competencies and standards will be identified for these positions, where possible making use of the national coal competencies and other existing national training competencies.

A project commenced in January 2009 and completed in August 2009 has to identifed the skills in each of the statutory positions for which an Industry & Investment NSW Certificate of Competence is issued and to determine whether there was any gaps between:

• the industry role, and
• the competency standards in the national training packages, and
• the Coal Competence Board statutory examination syllabus.

The report on this project was presented to the Board in August 2009 and its recommendations were endorsed to be further considered and actioned for future examination processes, in consultation with industry

A system for the maintenance of competence

A requirement for the maintenance of competence for specified functions involving Certificates of Competence is being developed.

A discussion paper - The System of Training and Continuing Professional Development for Certificate of Competence Holders in the NSW Coal Industry - has been released and is available for download above. Public comment is being sought and submissions close on 6 November 2009.

Endorsement of registered training organisations

Options for the introduction of a system outlining Coal Competence Board standards and guidelines for registered training organisations delivering training to the New South Wales coal mining industry are being developed.

One initiative is the pre-assessment of Registered Training Organisations by Industry & Investment NSW to register the new Resources and Infrastructure Training Packages on their scopes with the NSW Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board (NSW VETAB). NSW VETAB and the NSW Mining Industry and Skills Association are currently working with the Board to develop and implement the pre-assessment process for I&I NSW.

Further information

Terms of reference for the Coal Competence Board

Members of the Coal Competence Board

Education and stakeholder links

Requirements for qualifications and competency