About EBSA18 - Course J - They are trained, but are they competent?

Instructors:
Jonathan Gawn, Health and Safety Executive, UK
Nicola Cook, Public Health England, UK

Description:
A lack of competence has contributed to a number of major accidents and has been identified as a key underlying cause of incidents in biocontainment facilities. Competence is a broad, multifaceted subject and most organisations will already have processes that can contribute to the provision of competence within their specific working environment. However, often the challenge still remains to harness these processes in order to underpin an overall effective competence management system. This one-day course aims to provide biosafety professionals, researchers and facility managers with an introduction to the human aspects of competence, leading to an understanding of different ways in which it can be assessed as part of an effective competence management system.
Through a combination of presentations by the course instructors, open plenary discussions and group exercises, by the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Define what competence is and the elements that contribute to it
• Understand and recognise the different stages of competence that a person passes through on the way to becoming skilled
• Describe different types of human failure, why they might occur and identify which ones are directly linked to inadequate competence
• Define what competence management is and what it should aim to achieve
• Appreciate the need to assess competence and different ways in which this can be achieved and managed