External Knowledge Assessment

External Knowledge Assessment: How to Verify Contractor Competencies Before Site Admission

The issue of contractor employee qualifications is familiar to every HSE specialist. Often, the presence of certificates and "licenses" does not guarantee real knowledge of safe work execution. As part of the transformation of the industrial safety function at Gazprom Neft PJSC, a project was launched to create a competency barrier. Maxim Polyakov, Head of the Competency Assessment Systems Development Project, shares his experience in implementing an external knowledge assessment (EKA) system, which allows verifying contractors even before they arrive at the production site.

Knowledge Quantization: From Volumes of Regulations to Specific Requirements

The foundation of the system is the "knowledge quantization" methodology. Regulatory documents and state requirements contain a colossal amount of information, which is impossible and unnecessary for working personnel to know by heart. The speaker explains how the company approached solving this problem:

• Analysis of critical scenarios: only those requirements directly related to preventing real incidents are extracted from regulations.
• Division into quanta: each hazardous job is broken down into key points (knowledge quanta). For example, about 400 specific statements are formed for working at heights.
• Division of expertise: HSE specialists determine what needs to be known, and training experts formulate test questions from this. This eliminates the possibility of simply memorizing exam tickets, as question wordings are regularly updated while the requirements remain unchanged.

IT Platform and Proctoring System: Trust in Results

An independent IT platform, accessible from any device with the internet and a camera, is used for testing. The candidate studies visualized materials and takes the test. The key element of the system is video verification (proctoring) using artificial intelligence.

The system captures video from the webcam, records the screen, and analyzes the sound. AI recognizes the presence of unauthorized persons in the frame, attempts to turn away, or the use of cheat sheets. The presentation details how the final result is formed: the candidate receives not only a score for knowledge but also an assessment of the trust level (independent completion). This allows separating those who genuinely do not know the material (they can be trained) from those who try to cheat the system.

Integration into Business Processes and Results

Implementing such a barrier is a complex process requiring a balance between safety and the execution of the production program. The speaker demonstrates by example how testing results (on average, candidates answer only 3 out of 10 questions) are used to make managerial decisions. Threshold values for admission are set, and dashboards are created to analyze the knowledge level by professions and regions. This allows for targeted strengthening of control at sites where contractors with low competency levels work, and conducting a reasoned dialogue with counterparties even at the pre-mobilization audit stage.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to filter out redundant regulatory requirements and form an adequate knowledge profile for a worker?
• How the knowledge quantization methodology works and why it is more effective than standard tests?
• How to eliminate cheating during remote contractor testing using proctoring?
• How to use assessment results for risk management and interaction with contracting organizations?
• How to implement an admission restriction system without critical damage to the production program?