BP Norway has established a simple, robust and systematic competence management process for its offshore organisation, ensuring them an overview of employee competence, as required by Norwegian regulations for the petroleum industry and by BP Global.

Minimum Competence and Safety Critical Competence
BP Norway’s competence management process identifies requirements for minimum competence, safety critical activities and applicable safety critical competence, competency initiatives and competence verification.

“We differentiate between minimum competence and safety critical competence,” tells Bjørg Kaspersen, Competence Management Consultant at BP Norway, “minimum competence is the competence necessary to perform a job safely and efficiently, safety critical competence is the competence necessary to complete a safety critical activity.”

Photo: Gunnar Lied and Bjørg Kaspersen

KOMPAS
Asbjørn Hide is the Project Manager for the competence management project at BP Norway.  He tells that BP Norway must be able to gain an overview of the status of competence in the offshore organisation quickly.  He gets this overview using KOMPAS, a tool developed internally at BP Norway.

“KOMPAS is a tool for administrating company competence,” tells Hide.  “KOMPAS provides a complete overview of competency requirements for individual roles.  The system also provides a comprehensive overview of each individual’s competence in relation to competency requirements.”

Among other things, KOMPAS is a tool to help line managers ensure a competent workforce.  The process identifies competency gaps, and indicates mandatory actions required to close the identified competency gap.


Photo: KOMPAS identifies competency requirements

Verifying High and Medium Risk Activities
BP Norway verifies safety critical competence based on safety critical activities.

“Everyone who performs high or medium risk activities is verified in advance,” tells Gunnar Lied, Competence Management Consultant at BP Norway. “High risk activities are verified every third year and medium risk activities are verified every four years.”

For high risk activities, the assessor – through personal examination – verifies the candidate’s practical completion of the activity.

For medium risk activities, the assessor verifies the candidate’s knowledge of safety critical work procedures and other relevant governing documents.  Alternatively, the candidate completes an Internet-based exam, where all answers must be correct in order to pass.  The questions correspond to those used by an assessor.

“Using Trainingportal Publisher, BP Norway can develop Internet-based exam questions internally, and administrate them online,” tells Lied.

Photo: Gunnar Lied, Bjørg Kaspersen, Klara Austvoll, Asbjørn Hide

Asbjørn Hide tells that Internet-based exams contribute to reducing costs for the company.

“Oil companies place great emphasis on profitable operations, and Internet-based exams on Trainingportal help us reduce costs in conjunction with overtime, travelling, food and lodging, helicopter seats and sleeping accommodations offshore,” tells Hide.  “On Trainingportal, the candidate can take an exam anytime anywhere.”

The Object of Good Competence Management
Barriers are measures implemented to prevent an accident when something unforeseen happens. At BP Norway, level of education, competency initiatives, safety critical work procedures, and competence verification are examples of barriers.

“The object of good competence management is to reduce the risk of unwanted incidents, while also streamlining our operations,” concludes Hide.

Article by: Chul Christian Aamodt, Mintra AS