Massey University’s College of Health is partnering with the Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ) and representative associations to meet the demand for hazardous substances compliance certifiers.
Hazardous substances compliance certifiers are qualified professionals authorised to issue a compliance certificate, which is crucial to ensure hazardous substances in the workplace are safely handled and stored.
Massey is the main university partner teaching into the training programme, which includes two Massey courses.
Associate Professor Ian Laird, from Massey’s College of Health, says the new initiative is crucial to the health and safety sector which has seen falling numbers of qualified compliance certifiers over the past few years and now faces shortages in the workforce.
“Compliance certifiers are extremely important to the ongoing occupational safety of individuals and their workplaces, and we need to ensure we have enough people entering the profession to meet current and future demands of the industries.”
The initiative is a collaboration between many industry partners – Hazardous Substances Professionals NZ and the NZ Institute of Hazardous Substances Management supported by WorkSafe New Zealand.
The two Massey papers offered are Occupational Health and Safety, with a focus on hazardous substances, and a new course; Special Topic - Hazardous Substances Compliance Certifier, which is open to enrolments from January 2022.
Dr Laird says while this programme is the start of a learning pathway for compliance certifiers, it’s also available to those who wish to develop their hazardous substance knowledge for their workplace or professional development.
Massey University, HASANZ and industry partners are working on delivering more specialised courses that build on the current offerings.
HASANZ Executive Director Philip Aldridge says the courses have been established to meet the training needs of the profession and to promote compliance certification as a viable health and safety career.
“Working with Massey University to deliver this training pathway is a great opportunity to develop hazardous substance management understanding in New Zealand and grow the number of compliance certifiers in the workforce.”