Closing Skill Gaps: OPITO's Skills Screening Tool for Workforce Development
OPITO’s Skills Screening Tool helps streamline recruitment and training needs in the energy industry.
In an industry as multi-faceted and complex as the energy sector, keeping on top of required skills, training and compliance can be a demanding task – for both employers and employees.
That’s why OPITO developed its discipline specific Skills Screening Tool – an online solution for analysing employee knowledge and awareness, ensuring they can work safely and efficiently.
A web-based application, Skills Screening measures the knowledge and awareness of individuals, giving assurance in specific disciplines. Developed for use by both employers and recruiters, the tool helps assess and validate essential training needs for both new and existing employees. It ensures workplace competence and safety by identifying gaps early, allowing employers to make informed decisions on recruiting and training needs.
18 assessments across 16 disciplines
Michael Farrall, Global Qualifications Manager at OPITO explains:
“Skills Screening offers a baseline assessment of knowledge and awareness for a particular subject. Within our Skills Screening Tool, at the moment we offer 18 assessments across the energy sector in various job disciplines from banksman slinger, deck operations, into electrical, mechanical, painting, welding, thermal insulation, scaffolding, and rope access.
“It was created to allow employers seeking new employees, and recruiters, to carry out shortlisting screening of the applicants, or for employers to utilise with existing employees in an assessment of their knowledge and awareness in a particular subject matter.”
“Employers can ascertain an individual’s knowledge level, carry out a gap analysis, put a plan in place and develop the individual with a focus in those areas of improvement.
The great benefit is that it rules out blanket training of the whole team within that department when there's no real need - that takes up a lot of time and money, especially with particularly technical areas within the energy sector.”
Tailored assessments and comprehensive reporting
Michael explains:
“Why would you train somebody if they've just been trained recently in the exact same subject? Our tool places a huge emphasis on recognising relevant prior learning and allowing for the identification of focused training needs.”
Given its usefulness and the individualised approach to training it offers, OPITO’s Skills Screening Tool is simple for employers to use.
Each assessment across the 16 specialisms is customisable, allowing users to tailor assessments to their specific needs and administer them at their convenience. Results are stored in a central repository for thorough analysis and reporting purposes.
Through the Skills Screening portal, employers can manage participants, administer assessments within their organisation, and oversee the entire assessment process. Upon completion of the assessment, an analysis report can be generated, offering the employer a comprehensive breakdown of the assessment results.
Developed and reviewed by industry subject matter experts
The Skills Screening assessments are developed and reviewed by industry subject matter experts to ensure they meet relevant standards and serve their intended purpose effectively.
“Each assessment carries a benchmark industry pass mark of 80%.
The assessments are split into two sections: half of the questions will focus on actual role specific scenarios and the other half of the questions focus on the HSE requirements of the role.
We always cover the health and safety related aspects within a role to make sure that the workforce is aware and remains safe, and they can work efficiently within their working environment.”
OPITO aims to make Skills Screening assessments as flexible and accessible as possible, especially in an industry like energy where offices and teams are very often international.
“Many of our assessments are already available in French and Brazilian Portuguese, and clients can request that the assessments be translated into other languages as required.”
Michael has decades of experience specialising in learning and development in the energy industry around the globe.
“I think it's a fantastic tool. I would recommend it to any employer or recruiter, especially for the 18 assessments that we currently have for particular subject matters.
However, if there's something not there that a customer requires, we are absolutely open to them asking: can we have this, or would you develop this for us? Just get in touch and ask.”
Find out more about OPITO’s Skills Screening Tool, a cost-effective online solution for analysing employee skills across various disciplines.
