Cogent Business Development Director, Laura Baker said: “The Cogent platform will be a user-friendly web-based service for individuals in our industries to record their skills and CPD, providing a transferable record of their training.  The platform will underpin the upskilling of people in the Cogent sector to the Gold Standard – designed to raise the skills bar upwards to help companies compete globally.”

How does it work? The Passport System will provide individual information on training and qualifications via the web, from a secure database managed centrally by Cogent. Employers who enlist their employees for training will have responsibility to verify individual records. Passport cards will provide access to the holder’s record in the database via the web. The system will use smart card technology (which means the card will contain key electronic data).

The cardholder will be able to use the card to access his/her own record and to edit it, subject to verification of all edits and entries by the employer.

Stage one of this project has seen Cogent develop an industry training standard for Unescorted Access for Work on Licensed nuclear sites.  The companies have agreed to train people to the standard, saving a half day training session for people arriving at any of the 40-odd nuclear sites for the first time. The net saving for the industry is around 200 man days per month. The standard will come into use towards the end of 2007.

Initially The National Skills Academy for Nuclear will use the Platform for all its training records and it will capture the Unescorted Access for Work record.