Alert! Issue No 33 - You are the human element!
The latest edition of the maritime human element bulletin Alert! focuses on education and training.
The latest edition of the maritime human element bulletin Alert! focuses on education and training. It begins with a sad tale of a tragedy in an enclosed space, with a rating realising his mistake before lapsing into unconsciousness, but not in time to avoid making the fatal error in the first place. Could training have saved lives here? The fact that this scenario is repeated far too often onboard ships today is a terrible indictment on this apparent blind spot.
To help in efforts towards making training more effective this edition of Alert! gathers together some of the related information on education and training produced in earlier bulletins and provides a useful A-Z chart on training and education.
Readers are reminded that they are the human element as they read a review of the new Human Element DVD, which is already being employed as a training aid by a major oil company fleet. A range of important safety lessons is to be found in another sorry story, this time of a series of errors which led to the grounding of a large ship.
Readers will also learn about a ferry company’s SailSafe programme which is designed to change the company’s whole safety culture. Plenty of good ideas here, along with an important element in a reporting system that will encourage everyone to report incidents or near misses without fear of blame, on the important grounds that they will serve as a vital learning experience.
Readers are also asked if their company has an inclusive and rewarding working environment; a tanker manager shows how this has been recognised by the Investors in People scheme.
The importance of a trainee induction process, with so many safety implications, is also featured, with some golden rules that can be used to test processes. Might the tragedy which introduces this issue of Alert! have been averted by a proper induction process which is an essential adjunct to any on-board training programme, and part of the essential drill when joining a ship?
This issue of Alert! offers plenty of food for thought!
Ends
Notes to editors
The Alert! Project – launched in October 2003 – is a campaign to improve the awareness of the human element in the maritime industry. This is a Nautical Institute project, sponsored by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
Further information about the human element awareness initiative, and electronic copies of Alert! can be found at www.he-alert.org.
David Squire, FNI FCMI, The Editor, Alert!, The Nautical Institute, 202 Lambeth Road, London, SE1 7LQ, United Kingdom [email protected]
The Nautical Institute is the international representative body for maritime professionals and others with an interest in nautical matters. It provides a wide range of services to enhance the professional standing and knowledge of members who are drawn from all sectors of the maritime world.
Founded in 1972, it is a thriving international professional body, with over 40 branches worldwide and some 7,000 members in more than 110 countries.
Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRF), a UK registered charity, was set up in 2012. It invests in science, engineering and technology for public benefit, worldwide. As sole shareholder of Lloyd’s Register Group Limited, a professional services organisation working mainly in the transportation and energy sectors, LRF is funded by the profits of this subsidiary and by the income from its own investments.
LRF is developing the work of The Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust (The LRET), a charity set up in 2003, which joined the Foundation through a charitable merger in 2013. The history of the LRF name dates back to 1760 through its subsidiary, an organisation with a long tradition of public benefit, with safety at the heart of its work.
www.lrfoundation.org.uk Registered charity no. 1145988