Keeping track of employees' skills, competencies and training records can be a time consuming process. This is however essential information especially following a serious incident or accident that could prove whether the employer had, or had failed to, discharge his legal obligations.

Competence and general awareness of health & safety is essential for effective control. Human error is often to blame for accidents, which may result from inexperience, work pressure, or general incompetence. It is therefore important that employers understand the extent of each employee's skills, and determine whether they are competent to safely carry out the tasks required of them.

Training Records (certificates etc.) should be kept within Employee files. It is useful to summarise these on a matrix so that at a glance you can see who has had what training. A sophisticated matrix can also identify what additional training is required and so set up a gap analysis in identifying a shortfall in training needs. This can also identify those training items where refresher courses are required.

The Training module within the ISO123 web-based Management System provides an excellent tool for logging training competencies and for identifying training needs.