Skill Management - Part 1 - Introduction

Introduction

Skill confirmation tasks (also simply referred to as, “skilled tasks”) provide a way for users to confirm they have read and understood a particular version of a controlled document. Skilled staff lists can also be kept on equipment, reagents and materials. Where a document is linked to a competency test, the user must pass the test before the skill is confirmed. If skill verification is switched on in your OU's preferences, a nominated Skill Verifier can then verify this action, and the users will have records of the skills they have earned under their staff profile.

There are two ways to add skilled staff members in the system - as a stand alone list within a single controlled document or as part of a Skilled Group. Skilled groups allow including multiple documents (for multiple users) so the process of managing who should read which documents becomes far more streamlined and efficient over time.

Once the skilled user list is set-up on a particular controlled document or skilled group, each time a new version of a controlled document is released, iPassport automatically sends out a new skilled task to those users. If the OU preference "Reissue skilled tasks only on Major revision" is switched on, a minor revision does not send out new tasks unless the authoriser chooses to reissue them; users' existing skills are carried over to the new version instead. Any skill on the previous version that had not been confirmed by the time the new version is authorised is marked as Invalid. The system can also re-issue skill confirmation tasks for the same version of a document at set intervals. The interval is set for each document type in your OU's preferences, or on an individual document, and is off by default; the "Lead-in window before a skill expires" preference sets how far ahead of the expiry date the new task is created. This provides a way of ensuring users refresh their knowledge periodically. The system checks whether a user already has a current skill for the document (including one they have not yet confirmed) and avoids creating a new skilled task when it’s not required. If the OU preference "Issue new Tasks for re-issued skills" is switched on, a new task is issued instead.

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The next article covers Permissions & Settings