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Call for UAE safety training body
A national organisation that provides standardised health and safety training and qualifications that are recognised throughout the UAE needs to be established, according to a local contractor.
David Bass, health & safety manager, Al Naboodah Contracting, said that having an industry standard across all emirates would solve the current problem of fragmentation.
"A company can get approval to give training in Jebel Ali Free Zone but that doesn't necessarily mean it would get approval to give training in Dubai World. You would have to get a separate approval," Bass explained.
"The problem is it's so fragmented. You can have your staff fully trained up, but if you present that to another client, they won't accept it. They'll say: ‘that company's been accredited by Dubai Municipality, and we come under Jebel Ali Free Zone'. We need one body in this country that has the authority to act on behalf of all seven emirates to certify companies and people to train in occupational safety and health," he added.
Tony Potter, health & safety manager, Dubai Drydocks and vice chairman IOSH Middle East, (Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) said that the institute is currently lobbying for such an authority with the government.
"It would help tremendously if we had one authority, an educational body. One of the aims of the IOSH Middle East committee, is to lobby the government to put these sort of systems in place," said Potter.
"The system should be more centralised. There should be a national certificate for occupational health and safety as opposed to the Dubai Ports Authority, for example, giving out a certificate for safety in this area, and so on. It needs to be centralised and it needs to be a government body, and there should be a framework and structure for that to happen."
The matter was given top priority at a recent IOSH AGM.
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Comments 1-3 of 3
Posted by Matt E.M Training Consultant, Perth, Australia on 12 September 2007 at 11:00 UAE time
Having traveled through out the world, issuing on site safety audits and training, it can be viable to use another country's standards for safe practice on site. It has been done before. If people are deemed competent through training it is also up to themselves to act and use the training provided.
Posted by Sreekumar, dubai, uae on 19 August 2007 at 15:00 UAE time
Lack of standardisation is the basic cause in safety in UAE. Standardisation in not only training but in safety regulations and standards can only solve these problems. A uniform construction safety standard at the earliest can prevent further loss.
Posted by M.SUBBA RAO, SURAT, INDIA on 16 July 2007 at 08:00 UAE time
The idea needs to be looked into and will be very much a viable tool. This I am able to mention because individual companies are educating their personnel to the extent they think is FIT FOR THE JOB, whereas nobody is sure if such training is sufficient for the real needs of the job or even such a localised training is able to mitigate the site incidents.