Julie Hills, Director

Julie Hills:
Tel: 031 7101888
Fax: 031 7101851
Postal address: P O Box 416, Pinetown, 3630
Physical address: 10A Caversham Road, Pinetown, 3630

By Robyn Joubert

Health and Welfare Accreditation

Ecoserv leads the way in Occupational Health Training

ECOSERV’s Occupational Health Services division recently gained provisional SETA accreditation for its occupational health (OH) training courses, placing them at the front-line of OH trainers.

“ECOSERV is one of the first companies to offer health and safety courses that have the backing of HW-SETA,” says Julie Hills, Director of Occupational Health Division.

ECOSERV gained accreditation in June this year after a six-month process. Since HW-SETA has not yet written the registered unit standards for fully-fledged accreditation, ECOSERV has the highest accreditation that is currently available, but the accreditation is regarded as “provisional”.

“SETA has strict requirements – you have to develop an in-depth system of procedures and prove that you follow them. You need to track your students and show you will submit correct reports to SETA. Our infrastructure is very good and we have wonderful training facilities and computerised systems. Our courses are first rate quality and we passed our HW-SETA audit with flying colours.”

ECOSERV’s OH training division runs short courses instructing companies and their employees’ how to work within legal requirements relating to industrial health issues such as hazardous chemical substances, noise levels and asbestos removal.

“The new Education Act is based on the concept of competency-based and outcomes-based training. What this means is the old days of delivering a standard lecture are no longer acceptable. If the course deals with personal protective equipment (PPE), we not only demonstrate how to put PPE on, we want to see the learners doing it themselves. They won’t pass the course until we believe that person is competent, hence outcomes- or competency-based training. SETA has identified the need for trainers themselves to be trained in order to make these assessments.”

Ms Hills developed ECOSERV’s training courses over an intensive three-year period.

“I read all OH material I could get my hands on and sought advice from SETA about course content,” says Ms Hills. “I traveled to the UK, one of the leaders in OH, to see what they are doing. For ECOSERV’s asbestos courses, I drew particularly on research I undertook in Edinburgh. As a result, our asbestos courses have been developed on internationally-based standards and requirements. We are the only company in SA to have an advanced asbestos certificate.”

But ECOSERV is not about to rest on its laurels.

“We are continually striving to improve our services. We are on the brink of introducing exciting environmental courses into our portfolio, relating to integrated ISO 1400/1800 accreditation and air quality monitoring ” concludes Ms Hills.