The Employers’ Trade Union of Cement Industry (ÇEİS) became the first cement sector institution responding to the decision by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to make competence certificate obligatory for 48 professions. ÇEİS made an investment of 1 million TL to become the first institution creating a professional competence test and certification system in the Turkish cement sector.
“Our goal is to increase the number of qualified employees in the Turkish cement sector in order to contribute to the development of the sector and become the leading sector in occupational health and safety,” Tufan Ünal, the Chairman of the Board of ÇEİS, said while making a statement at an Ankara conference regarding the “professional certification services based on national competencies in the cement sector.”
Ünal also underlined that they invested 1 million TL in the cement sector’s national competency system through the project CemenTTest – “the Development of a Professional Test and Certification System in the Turkish Cement Sector” – financed in a partnership between the European Union and Turkey.
“With this investment project carried out through an EU grant fund, we intend to establish the necessary infrastructure and increase the competence of ÇEİS Test and Certification Center (ÇEŞBEM) aiming to carry out tests to make certifications in the cement sector. We will make sure that the ÇEİS Test and Certification Center (ÇEŞBEM), which we put into operation in 2012, is accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) for professional competence test and certification and that it is authorized by the Professional Competency Board (MYK),” Ünal continued.
Professional standards determined for those generating energy from waste
Ünal who also stated that an environment-friendly production is another subject that the cement sector pays a great deal of importance explained the goals within the project CemenTTest.
“In the cement sector we contribute to the national economy by turning many kinds of waste into energy. We generate energy from flue gas and turn garbage into energy and then energy into cement through waste management. With the anticipation of the fact that these activities, all of which positively contribute to the environment and operational costs, will become widespread in our sector, we also added to our CemenTTest project goals the development of national profession standards for Alternative Fuel Preparation Operatorship, Remote Control Operatorship at Waste Heat-Derived Energy Plants, and Field Staff at Waste Heat-Derived Energy Plants, and helped these mentioned standards go in effect in the Official Gazette.”
Tufan Ünal further stated that within the CemenTTest project they also developed national competencies aimed at Central Remote Control Operators and Cement Test Staff in addition to the development of the said national profession standards.
Uncertified sector employees to have competence certificates
Ünal emphasized that production employees working at cement factories do not hold Professional Competence Certificates related to their area of activity.
“Unfortunately our vocational education system does not have any branch/discipline directly related to cement production technologies. Thus our production employees working at factories in particular are, as the phrase goes, ‘self-educated’ people. ÇESBEM will help such employees have Professional Competence Certificates thanks to their on-the-job knowledge and experience. In the future, we aim to have all the production employees start working as people with Professional Competence Certificates.”
