Guidelines on Application and Renewal of Training Centre and Competent Person 2019 (Part 1)

Recently a new guideline was published by DOSH on renewal of training centre and competent person (in Malay language)  and there was many new significant changes in the guideline. However in this post,  I will be discussing on the competency of Safety and Health Officer and Lift Competent Person only. Perhaps I will find some other time to go through other competency.

I) Safety and Health Officer (SHO)

The major changes include a minimum education level of diploma in order to be eligible to take the SHO course. Previously having credit for several key subjects in SPM (form 5 exam) is sufficient.

For application of SHO, previously all applicants regardless of education level will required a mandatory 3 years working experience in the field of OSH as a safety practitioner prior to applying. Now the new guideline only requires 1 year working experience for those with degree and above in OSH and 2 years working experience for those with diploma in OSH. However, the higher education (diploma, degree, master in OSH must be recognized by DOSH and the approve list of education center is listed on their website). No change for those with SHO certificate which still requires applicants to have 3 years of working experience.

For renewal of SHO license,  the major changes include reduction of continuous education programme (CEP)  points from 90 in 3 years to only 30 in 3 years.  In addition to that,  all SHO are mandatory to attend a refresher course (kursus latih semula) and pass the refresher course exam. Currently there are still not much details on the refresher course and some speculate that it is the SHO Enrichment Programme currently carried out by NIOSH which is a 6 days course costing near to RM2000. I will update when there is new details published by DOSH.

II) Lift competent person

The new guideline will require lift competent person level 1 and 2 to attend CEP courses (similar to SHO which are 30 points for 3 years) and also to take the refresher course/kursus latih semula (compulsory to attend and pass exam). However we are still not sure who or where the refresher course will be carried out and what is the syllabus and process (how many days course).  Perhaps it will be carried out by NIOSH as well or maybe by MALEA (The Malaysian Lift and Escalator association) but from the guideline, I did not see the involvement of MALEA in preparation of this guideline.  Also in this guidelines,  there is no mention of Lift competent level 3 requiring to take CEP course and the refresher course.

Note: 'Kursus Latih Semula' is the official word use in the guideline and since the guideline is only in Malay language, I roughly translate 'Kursus Latih Semula' as refresher course.  The actual term may be different and I will amend accordingly when the official term is out.

Thank you for reading. Do drop us a feedback if there is any comment or opinion.