COLA mandatory qualifications
Under the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004, the Construction Occupations Registrar is responsible for determining mandatory qualifications for the various construction occupation licence categories. These qualification are required to be in a Notifiable instrument and available on the ACT Legislation Register.
The Registrar recently approved a revised Mandatory Qualification Instrument. The Construction Occupations (Licensing) (Mandatory Qualifications) Declaration 2009 (No 1) is available on the Legislation Register.
The changes only relate to the construction occupations of Asbestos Assessor, Asbestos Removalist and Builder.
The changes for the asbestos occupations include improved wording in relation to when a course is able to be delivered and the need for a written agreement from the applicant to complete a course within 12 months of it being able to be delivered.
The building occupations have been altered to allow for the 2 years of building work experience to be relevant practical experience rather than 2 years of experience gained since commencing the relevant course. Relevant practical experience is defined at the end of the instrument as "within the last 5 years".
The builder class B qualification has also been altered to recognise diploma level qualifications in architecture, civil engineering and structural engineering in addition to building.
The new instrument applies to licence applications lodged from 19 June 2009.
