1.7 Planning Work, Permits, Communication & Mentoring

Task A-3.01 (Plans work) and Task A-4 (Uses communication and mentoring techniques, 3 exam questions) are the "soft" tasks that candidates skip and then lose marks on. The Red Seal Occupational Standard treats them as trade competencies, not optional extras.

Planning the Job

Before a millwright picks up a tool, a complete job plan answers ten questions:

A field-level hazard assessment (also called a field-level risk assessment or tailboard) is completed at the work location, immediately before the work, by the crew doing it — not filled in at the shop that morning. It identifies each task step, the hazards, the controls, and who is responsible, and it must be revised whenever the scope, the conditions, the equipment or the crew changes. A pre-job toolbox talk communicates the plan to everyone involved, including operators, riggers and any other trades in the area.

Permits

Permits are time-limited and condition-specific. They must be closed out when the work ends or the shift changes, and re-issued rather than extended by assumption.

Lock-Out Coordination and Group Lock-Out

Section 1.2 covers the mechanics of lock-out and zero energy state. Planning adds the coordination layer:

             GROUP LOCK-OUT WITH A LOCK BOX

   Energy isolation points          Lock box                Workers
   +---------------------+       +-------------+
   | Breaker  [ lock A ] |       |  key A      |  <- personal lock (millwright)
   | Valve    [ lock B ] | --->  |  key B      |  <- personal lock (electrician)
   | Blind    [ lock C ] |       |  key C      |  <- personal lock (rigger)
   +---------------------+       +-------------+
   Isolation locks stay on       Keys are captive        Each worker's own lock
   until every personal          inside the box          must come off before
   lock is removed                                       the box can be opened

Every worker exposed to the hazard applies their own personal lock and tag, and only that worker removes it. Removing another person's lock is an extreme-severity violation and is permitted only under a documented, authorized, verified-absence procedure. The plan must also state who verifies isolation, who performs the try-test, and what happens at shift change — an incoming crew applies their locks before the outgoing crew removes theirs.

Communication (A-4.01)

Mentoring (A-4.02)

Journeypersons are the training system in the skilled trades. In Canada, apprenticeship is administered provincially or territorially, and the millwright program combines a period of supervised on-the-job hours — commonly around four years — with periodic in-school technical training, before the apprentice writes the certification exam. Program hours, ratios and technical training schedules differ between jurisdictions, so verify the requirements with the apprenticeship authority where you work.

Journeyperson responsibilities:

1. Supervise within the required ratio. Provincial regulations set journeyperson-to-apprentice ratios, and an apprentice must work under the supervision of a certified journeyperson.
2. Verify and sign off logged hours and competencies honestly. Signing for work an apprentice has not performed defeats the whole credential.
3. Model safe behaviour. An apprentice will copy what they see, not what they are told. Skipping a lock-out once teaches more than a hundred safety talks.
4. Give specific, timely feedback — describe the behaviour and the consequence, not the person.

The Tell-Show-Do-Review Method

Adjust for the apprentice's level: a first-year needs close supervision and narrow scope, while a fourth-year needs the whole job and the chance to plan it. Confirm understanding by having the apprentice explain or demonstrate — never by asking "do you understand?", which almost always gets a yes.