Maintenance of competence

The maintenance of competence (MOC) scheme is a requirement to keep up-to-date the knowledge and skills of individuals who hold a practising certificate to exercise specific statutory functions.

Publishing of report: Practising certificates - Compliance audits of maintenance of competence 2023

The report on audits conducted between March to July 2023 is now available for stakeholders to read and learn from the audit findings. Refer to the Auditing section below.

If you hold a practising certificate, you will need to undertake specified hours of recognised learning for areas of competence over the five-year validity period of your certificate.

The maintenance of competence scheme applies to all practising certificates issued by the NSW Resources Regulator.

Key steps

Apply for a practising certificate through the Resources Regulator portal.
The Regulator issues your practising certificate and you start your maintenance of competence from the date of granting.
Complete professional learning requirements according to your certificate.
Record completed learning hours, topics covered and types of learning undertaken in a logbook and keep supporting evidence. A logbook template is available below.
The Regulator undertakes audits on compliance with scheme requirements on a random basis annually, using contracted organisations.
Apply to renew your practising certificate with a declaration complying with the certificate conditions every five years (no log required to be submitted).

For further information:

view the guide to the maintenance of competence scheme for practising certificates (PDF, 867.42 KB)

Updates on progress and changes regarding maintenance of competence requirements are communicated through Mine Safety News and via our webinars. Subscribe here to Mine Safety News.

Learning requirements

The maintenance of competence scheme sets out the learning you have to undertake in certain areas of competence, the types of recognised learning and the number of hours of learning. Learning requirements such as the required number of hours vary between the types of practising certificates. There are also strict rules about claimable hours.

It is your responsibility to be aware of the learning requirements required over the period of your practising certificate. For detailed information read the guide to the maintenance of competence scheme for practising certificates (PDF, 867.42 KB).

Study topics

The scheme requires you to complete learning in the following five areas of competence:

Mining and WHS systems
Legislation
Emergency management
Leadership and management
General WHS topics

Formal learning from disasters

The gazetted minimum is a holder must complete the Regulator’s Learning from disasters one-day program OR minimum 7 hours of other formal learning during the five years of their certificate.

The Regulator’s Learning from disasters webpage contains reading and 3 programs that a holder could attend to make up their 7 hours of learning. Program 3 is the one day course delivered by approved training providers only that are listed with their contact details on our Learning from disasters webpage.

Regulator events recommended MOC claims

The Resources Regulator may provide a QR code or excel spreadsheet of recommended claims for learning to event attendees. An individual claim may differ slightly if they identify a topic to be more relevant to their function if allocated to a different area of learning or they are not present during all of the event.

Dispensation for COVID-19

Practising certificates holders will receive dispensation for maintenance of competence requirements because of the impacts of COVID-19.

The Resources Regulator in consultation with the Mining and Petroleum Competence Board has approved a 12-month (20 per cent of learning hours) dispensation of maintenance of competence requirements for all practising certificate holders who held a certificate during the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

This means current certificate holders will only need to meet 80 per cent of their maintenance of competence requirements on their practising certificate during the five-year certificate period. It will not apply to holders of practising certificates granted after this time.

Auditing

The Resources Regulator is contracting external organisations to conduct audits of practising certificate holders for their condition to comply with the gazetted maintenance of competence requirements.

For more details refer to our Factsheet: Auditing of WHS practising certificate holders for maintenance of competence. (PDF, 95.33 KB)

A report on the outcomes of the auditing programme for each financial year is provided to the NSW Mining and Petroleum Competence Board and published below:

Webinars

These are held to update holders and other stakeholders on practising certificates and maintenance of competence. You should subscribe to our Mine Safety News to see an announcement on the next webinar so you can register to attend.

Recordings of previous webinars are provided below:

Further information

For more information view the following resources:

If you can’t find the information you are looking for or need advice about the maintenance of competence scheme, contact us at mca@regional.nsw.gov.au or 1300 814 609 (Option 2 and then option 3).