Suitably qualified and experienced personnel

The notion of competency as a requirement in CRM is well established in other industries such as nuclear power. In engineering the term SQEP (pronounced squep ) is used to refer to those who are Suitably Qualified and Experienced Personnel. SQEP implies that an individual is a professionally qualified person who has several years as a practitioner, is registered in their area of expertise within the organisation and so whose judgement can be used to resolve a technical problem with some finality [1]. In many cases formally establishing SQEP in these industries is a fundamental pre-requisite to employment or allocation to a project. 

The skills and knowledge required to implement any of the activities of the safety life cycle relating to the safety instrumented systems should be identified and for each skill, the required competency levels should be defined. Resources should be assessed against each skill for competency and also the number of people per skill required. When differences are identified, development plans should be established to enable the required competency levels to be achieved in a timely manner. When shortages of skills arise, suitably qualified and experienced personnel may be recruited or contracted. 

Defined manning levels for suitably qualified and experienced personnel (SQEP). Training. 

Recruitment, training and development of technical personnel have to meet business needs to ensure that operations and maintenance departments are staffed with suitably qualified and experienced people, and to ensure that good technical advisors are available when required. 

All personnel who will be involved in making a proposed modification or in conducting the proposed utilization are suitably trained, qualified and experienced for the task and, if necessary, trained in advance in the effect of this modification or utilization on reactor operation and the safety characteristics of the reactor. 

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