What Competence Means at Work

An operator on a gas processing plant starts a compressor every week. One day a new supervisor asks a simple question: "How do we know she can do it safely?" The operator has a certificate from a course three years ago. She has worked on the plant for five years. But neither fact proves that she can start this compressor, on this plant, to the company procedure, today.

That gap is what competence assurance is about. In this course, competence means the ability to apply knowledge, skills and behaviours to perform a task to a defined standard in the workplace. Each part of that sentence matters.

Competence is specific and it can fade

Competence belongs to a task, a role and a context. A skilled crane operator on an onshore yard is not automatically competent on an offshore pedestal crane. A maintenance technician who is competent on one make of gas turbine may not be competent on another.

Competence also changes over time. A person who has not done a task for two years may have lost the skill. A procedure may have been revised. New equipment may have arrived. For these reasons, competence is never a permanent label. It is a judgement made at a point in time, against a stated standard, and it needs to be maintained.