Certified Professional Instructors (CPI) Reputation of Excellence

OH&S Registry members are Certified Professionals and have a responsibility to be competent and an obligation to behave professionally. The CPI’s (Certified Professional Instructors) reputation of excellence is derived from the following fundamental principles of ethical conduct.

Professional Behaviour

Certified Professional Instructors conduct themselves in a manner which maintains the good reputation of the safety profession and serves the best interests of the people to which they provide safety education. In doing so, members pledge to avoid any action that would discredit the profession.

A CPI member’s involvement in any organization should be based primarily upon a reputation for professional excellence. In addition, CPI members who occupy positions of senior authority (supervisors, foreman etc.) should recognize that their positions include an obligation to influence the safety practices and safety culture within that organization. Safety culture embodies the value placed on safety and the extent to which people take personal responsibility for safety within an organization. Safety culture is often described as the personality of an organization and a positive safety culture exists when employees understand the importance of safety and exhibit positive safety behaviours. Accordingly, OH&S Registry members should encourage the importance of positive safety behavior and compliance with generally accepted safety standards of practice.

Professional Services with Integrity and Due Diligence

There is an expectation that all OH&S Registry authorized training centres and certified professional instructors are to be straightforward, honest and fair dealing in all professional relationships. They are also expected to act diligently and in accordance with applicable professional standards when providing safety training services. Being duly diligent when applied to occupational health and safety, means that

training centres and their instructors shall take all reasonable precautions, under the circumstances, to prevent injuries or accidents in the workplace. This duty also applies to situations that are not addressed elsewhere in the occupational health and safety legislation. Diligence includes the responsibility to act, in respect of any professional service, carefully and thoroughly. OH&S Registry members are required to ensure that those performing safety services under their authority have adequate training and supervision.

Objectivity

Certified Professional Instructors do not allow their professional judgment to be compromised by bias, conflict of interest or the undue influence of others. With respect to both independence and conflicts of interest, the OH&S Registry criterion is whether a reasonable observer would conclude that a specified situation or circumstance posed an unacceptable threat to an OH&S Registry member’s objectivity and professional judgment. It is upon this confidence that the reputation of the safety training profession rests. The reasonable observer should be regarded as a hypothetical individual who has knowledge of the facts which the OH&S member knew or ought to have known and applies judgment objectively with integrity and due care.

Confidentiality

Certified Professional Instructors protect confidential information acquired as a result of professional, employment and business relationships and do not disclose it without proper and specific authority. The principle of confidentiality obliges members to protect and maintain the confidentiality of information both outside of and within a member’s firm or employing organization and to properly address a situation that may arise when confidentiality is breached.

Professional Competence

Certified Professional Instructors maintain their professional skills and competence by keeping informed of, and complying with, developments in their area of safety and professional service. It is generally expected that the safety professional is to maintain a high level of competence. This underscores the need for maintaining individual professional skill and competence by keeping abreast of and complying with developments in the professional standards and pertinent legislation in all functions where an authorized training centre or certified professional instructor member provides services.

Professional Development

OH&S has unique assessment-based programming that covers the entire process of delivering training, including planning and preparation, creating a positive learning environment, facilitating and evaluating learning. The OH&S Registry will provide the support needed to develop instructor skills or to upgrade a current instructors credentials. We encourage all OH&S Instructors to explore a growing resource of training programs developed for professionals by professionals that are available at the OH&S Registry.