ABSTRACT
In addition it is necessary to have a working understanding of safety, occupational health, and environmental management, appropriate to the level and scope of the audit being carried out.
To achieve these skills, the auditors will have completed an education that equips them for such work. Often this will mean auditors coming from management levels, but it is not uncommon in Level 1 (compliance level) auditing that very experienced auditors come from the nonmanagerial ranks. Whatever educational route the auditors follow, they should have work experience that equips them with knowledge for auditing SHE practices. In addition, all auditors need to go through form training in the mechanics of auditing. ISO 19011 (section 4 table 1) recommends that auditors
should have a minimum of five years’ relevant work experience followed by forty hours of directed auditor training. In practice, this means something like a week’s auditor training course followed by something like twenty days of audit experience as a trainee under the guidance of an experienced auditor. My own experience is that the ISO 19011 training objective is a good target, but may be somewhat optimistic in practice for nonprofessional auditors. One thing is clear, however, and that is that the auditor needs to maintain his or her competence, and this means ensuring that he or she regularly takes part in audits. As with most skills, failure to practice auditing skills for a period will mean that the skills and competence erode and some of the important tricks of the trade will be forgotten. Auditors who do not apply their audit training at least several times a year are not likely to maintain an adequate competence level.
