Confined Space Gas Test & Permit Issuer

Undertaking and successfully completing this course will provide students with the following four units of competency:

MSMPER300 Issue work permits

MSMWHS217 Gas test atmospheres

MSMWHS201 Conduct hazard analysis

‘Great confined space course this week! First time in 3 courses over the years I actually feel like I know what to do..and got to do real lifelike scenarios with real equipment!’ CSG Student

This course, known as the OHSA Confined Space Entry (CSE2) – Gas Testing & Permit Issuer Course, contains three nationally recognised units of competency including MSMPER300 Issue work permits, MSMWHS217 Gas test atmospheres and MSMWHS201 Conduct hazard analysis.

This course is relevant for persons who require a greater depth of knowledge of working in confined spaces and performing gas testing of atmospheres and follows on from our initial OHSA Confined Space Entry (CSE1) – 1 Day Initial Course (which is designed for people who work in or around confined spaces).

It covers the roles and responsibilities of the team, the confined space risk assessment process and gas testing. Working in confined spaces is a high-risk activity and has been responsible for many work-related deaths and injuries. Legislation requires that all persons with work activities related to confined space/s must undertake appropriate training and be assessed as competent, to perform those activities in accordance with Australian Standard AS2865 Safe Working in a Confined Space.

This course is available at our training centres in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We are also able to conduct on-site training with either our purpose-built mobile training facility, or at a workplace and tailor the training course to suit the practical scenarios relevant to a company’s operations.

This nationally recognised training course is designed for people who work in or around confined spaces. It is the intermediate course which allows someone to conduct a risk assessment and enter a confined space to conduct work, gas testing atmospheres and conduct risk assessments.

This course is recommended for anyone who is required to work in or around confined spaces and may be required to undertake a basic confined space rescue, act as a standby or operate gas detectors. We are able to conduct on-site training with either our purpose-built mobile training facility or at a workplace and tailor the course to suit the practical scenarios relevant to a company’s confined space operations.

While there is a standard set of learning outcomes for the course, we understand that the context and environment in which the learning is applied is varied. It is designed to teach students how to:

• Identify and control confined space hazards
• Work safely within confined spaces according to an issued permit
• Determine what hazards may exist within various atmospheres
• Risk assess the best work method from the hierarchy of hazard controls
• Complete relevant risk assessments and permits
• Operate various confined space safety equipment to allow for vertical or horizontal entries
• Understand the effects of airborne hazards on the body
• Use a gas detector and interpret readings
• Discharge the obligations of a standby person and supervise confined space operations.

Safe Work Australia’s Confined Spaces Code of Practice February 2014 states that a confined space means: an enclosed or partially enclosed space that:

• is not designed or intended primarily to be occupied by a person; and
• is, or is designed or intended to be, at normal atmospheric pressure while any person is in the space; and

is or is likely to be a risk to health and safety from:

• an atmosphere that does not have a safe oxygen level, or
• contaminants, including airborne gases, vapours and dusts, that may cause injury from fire or explosion, or
• harmful concentrations of any airborne contaminants, or
• engulfment

Examples of confined spaces include (but are not limited to):

• Pits
• Tanks
• Process and pressure vessels
• Boilers
• Silos and other tank-like compartments
• Pipes
• Sewers and Sewer pump stations including wet and dry wells, shafts and ducts
• Shipboard spaces entered through small hatchways or access points, cargo tanks, cellular double bottom tanks, duct keels, ballast or oil tanks and void spaces

It is a requirement for students to have already completed the Confined Space Entry (CSE1) Course, before commencing the OHSA Confined Space Entry (CSE2) – Gas Testing & Permit Issuer Course.

Students will need sufficient physical and psychological ability to participate in practical scenario based training, which may involve crawling and climbing up, down, through or under structures or confined and restricted spaces, being temporarily suspended, wearing harnesses and other relevant PPE, lifting and carrying breathing apparatus/ cylinders, donning harnesses, dragging, lifting or carrying people or mannequins in confined and restricted environments in dark, low light or smoke filled areas.

Students must attend in, or have with them, safety clothing including long sleeved shirt/trousers and enclosed footwear. As part of the course, OHSA will supply all equipment necessary for students to undertake training although we do actively encourage students to bring along their own equipment where practicable.

NOTE: There are specific language, literacy and numeracy requirements of some of the units in this course. In order to be deemed competent, students must be able to read and correctly interpret required documentation relevant to the confined space entry, speak clearly and unambiguously in English, explain, describe and verify sometimes complex needs and issues and understand the permit requirements. Writing is required to the level of completing workplace forms and producing any required reports. Numeracy is required to the level of being able to correctly differentiate between high and low pressures and temperatures, voltages or masses and interpret gas test/monitoring results.

Students must be clean shaven. The unit of competency demands that students “Don the apparatus in accordance with workplace procedures and the manufacturer’s specifications” The manufacturer’s specifications state: “The sealing line between head and face piece must be free of hair and foreign substances which could cause leakages”. Furthermore, AS 1715 requires users to be clean shaven.

For further information on this course call us on 1300 OHSA 00 (1300 647 200).