The British Drilling Association’s (BDA) Training and Education Committee has announced additional criteria that must be met in order for drilling operatives to gain the required industry approval – Level 3 Diploma in Advanced Land Drilling, and for it to issue a successful assessors’ a certificate.
The additional criteria – that current best practice and standards must be observed and recognised by the assessor during assessment – was identified as necessary to ensure continued validity of the qualification as an ‘advanced qualification’ during the development of the Level 3 Diploma.
The additional requirements are contained in the qualification for the assessor to meet and an assessor must be industry-approved by the BDA, in order to deliver this qualification. The criteria for assessor approval include CPD records with the aim to ensure the assessors are current with any legislation or best practice changes. The industry approval will last of 12 months.
MP Awards who developed the qualification work closely with the BDA and have a number of centres with representation on the BDA committee. NOCN, the market-leading international Awarding Organisation and Government-approved End Point Assessment Organisation will use the BDA’s Phil Dainton from Rotary Test Drilling to act on their behalf to handle new level 3 assessors requests.
Speaking about the new criteria, Paul McMann, Chair of the BDA Training & Education Sub-committee said: “The Level 3 Diploma in Land Drilling was developed to provide a linear and structured career progression within the land drilling sector, which many within the industry expressed was long overdue. These changes to criteria are essential to ensure the qualification has the status and gravitas it hopes to confer on those achieving it, but more importantly, carries the necessary credibility within the drilling industry that ensures its acceptance of an individual’s ability and professionalism.”