[Design and Technology] FYI Yvette - OH&S Short Course by December 09

Mon Jul 27 08:54:23 EST 2009

Hi Yvette,
below some correspondence regarding Technology teacher requirements and OHS - just to keep you in the loop.
IAN

________________________________

From: destech-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of David Fletcher
Sent: Sat 25/07/2009 4:56 PM
To: DES TECH MAILING LIST
Cc: SYSTEMS ENGINEERING Mailing List
Subject: [Design and Technology] Reply about OH&S Short Course by December 09

-----Original Message-----
From: David Fletcher [mailto:dgfletch at bigpond.net.au] 
Sent: Saturday, 25 July 2009 3:52 PM
To: Robin Panousieris
Subject: OH&S Short Course Developments

Hi Robin,

YES ... the new DEECD requirements have certainly stirred up some activity.

There have been a huge number of changes in the personel involved in OH&S matters. 

Paul O'Halloran has moved into another section, and David LAWRY is now managing Employee Health at DEECD.  Bob Pearson has retired from Noel Arnold & Associates and his replacement (Glen Eckhart) resigned and moved into Northern Region as OH&S Consultant;  Noel Arnold's contract has been terminated, and replaced by MARSH who are not contracted to do the School Verification Process.  Each DEECD Region now has an OH&S Consultant, who is managing the roll out for the Course for Safe Use of Machinery in Technology.

The course is ONLY a requirement for State School Technology teachers, and is being funded by the Regional Offices which are invoiced by the TAFE. Regional Office also covers CRT payments for teachers participating in the course (IF teachers can find a replacement !!).  Independent (AISV) and Catholic (CEO) School organisations are supportive of the concept, but have not (as yet) required their teachers to do this course, nor have they offered payment / reimbursement. (Just over half the teachers in the vacation course run by Holmesglen were non-government sector teachers !). Due to delays in getting the course fully under way, the qualification period is to be extended to the end of 2010 (as announced at last week's meeting with DEECD).

There is provision for RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning), and some teachers will only be required to attend the first day of the course (covering new legislation etc), but will need to demonstrate their competency on machinery. (Cost recovery for this component has not been finalised !)

There will be a larger number of these courses offered later in the year -- mid November to early December - when Technology teachers should find getting days off from classes more straight forward.  TAFE's have been advised to use this period productively.  

Letters and emails have gone out from DEECD to all Principals about the course requirements, however, it seems that these are not always read or passed on !!  We have tried through DATTA.Vic and the destech & systech mailing lists to keep teachers informed, but it appears that there are many "technology" teachers out there not on these lists.

Regarding tertiary programs,  LaTrobe Bundoora also includes a substantial OH&S component in their Grad Dip Tech Ed program, and Janeden River (Lecturer) was at the meeting last week of Regional Consultants and TAFE Providers.

I hope some of the above explanations will help - you are not the only one who is "seeing red" about these new requirements.

Best wishes,

David Fletcher

Secretary,

Design & Technology Teachers Association of Victoria

(DATTA.Vic)

David Fletcher Head of Design & Technology 

 <http://mail.monivae.vic.edu.au/IMarshall/Drafts/RE:%20[Design%20and%20Technology]%20Reply%20about%20OH%26S%20Short%20Course%20by%20December%2009.EML/1_multipart/image001.jpg> 
T 9807 8888 F+61 3 9888 1089 
E dfletcher at huntingtower.vic.edu.au
W http://WWW <http://www/> .huntingtower.vic.edu.au
77 Waimarie Drive, Mount Waverley, Victoria 3149, Australia 

Many thanks to David Fletcher for raising this very important OH&S requirement for all Design and Technology (Wood/metal) teachers.  

In 2008 I worked in the state system and am now in the Catholic system.  I was aware of the "suggested" required OH&S training for use of machinery in late 2008 - now I am meant to have done a substantial number of hours of OH&S PD by Dec. 2009 - well once again the Dept. of Ed. (OH&S staff) have failed to keep Design and Technology teachers fully informed and best of all have contracted out the PD to TAFEs to make money rather than provide it for a reasonable rate and at reasonable times during the day.  No doubt D&T teachers will have to fit the time in after a full day at work.  

I guess the Dept of Education has heaps of Design and Technology teachers and hence over working them will just sort out the lazy ones who won't (but realistically can't) do the training in time.  This could mean that these teachers won't be qualified and will be sacked or worse - an accident happens, teacher doesn't have "the book" to prove they can use the machinery safely and they are taken to court - that's a good trick because that gets rid of all those excess D&T teachers around the state.  

In the end it is all about inadequate tertiary training for Design and Technology teachers in the first place - too much theory but virtually no experience provided for the safe use of machinery (Ballarat Uni. I understand is the exception to the rule) - so now we all suffer.  

Below is an extract from the Dept. website 

"Teachers are required to pass the prescribed competency test in the safe use of machinery before December 2009. The competency test applies to each item of plant and machinery where student supervision is required and to those items of plant detailed on the Safe Use Test List (See below). The competency test is current for five years. Teachers receive a 'pass-book' describing the machinery for which they have competency in supervising safe use. A corresponding record of the teacher's machine use competencies should be held in the teacher's personnel record for at

least seven years".

Robin Panousieris Assumption College Kilmore

_______________________________________________ 
http://www.edulists.com.au <http://www.edulists.com.au/> - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe 
Design and Technology Mailing List kindly supported by 
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/designtech/destechindex.html - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and 
DATTA Vic - Design and Technology Teachers' Association of Victoria 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 47820 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/destech/attachments/20090727/5c1cc830/attachment-0001.bin