Safety Critical Skills

Safety critical skills (SCS)  are the social, cognitive, and personal management skills that enable safe and effective work performance. They include communication, situation awareness, decision-making, and management of stress and fatigue.

In this pioneering online microcredential from the University of Aberdeen, you’ll learn how to identify and evaluate SCS in the workplace. Focusing particularly on high-risk industries like aviation, healthcare, shipping, agriculture, and offshore drilling, you’ll discover the full range of non-technical skills required for safe work practice.

Throughout the course, you’ll be trained to analyse SCS from a human factors perspective, preparing you for careers in human factors management and consulting.

Review the history of safety critical skills

The course will start with an overview of safety critical skills and their history. From crew resource management in aviation to more recent developments in farming and healthcare, you’ll trace evolving understandings of essential skills and training.

You’ll also investigate the potential impact of SCS failures, considering adverse factors such as cultural variation, wellbeing, design features, and more. In discussion with your peers and instructors, you’ll consider ways of mitigating and working around these adverse factors.

Examine case studies from a wide range of high-risk industries

The first general and not industry-specific SCS programme in the UK, this microcredential looks at examples from a wide range of contexts and industries. Whatever your area or occupation, you’ll build the skill-set you need for your career.

You’ll be guided through these different case studies by interdisciplinary academics who have been conducting industry-shaping SCS research for almost a decade.

Build vital skills for human factors-related careers

This industry-driven microcredential is designed to equip you with vital skills to accelerate your career. You’ll be trained to use behavioural marker systems and assessments to evaluate safety critical skills in your workplace and to mitigate skills failures when they arise.

With the expertise you gain throughout the programme, you’ll be well placed to unlock roles in human factors management or consulting across a huge range of industries.

How will this microcredential help to develop my career?

This microcredential is focused on providing you with practical skills and training for use in any number of industries.

You’ll learn how to identify, evaluate, and improve safety critical skills within your team or organisation, as well as how to mitigate skills failures when these arise. All of these are applicable skills that will help you boost efficiency within your workplace and protect the safety of your colleagues.

With the certificate you gain at the end of the programme, you’ll be able to demonstrate your expertise in SCS to recruiters in future.

How will I be assessed?

Throughout the programme, you will be assessed for your participation in online discussion boards (worth 10% of your final mark). At the end, you will complete two online multiple-choice assessments (each worth 25% of your mark) and one piece of assessed final coursework (worth 40% of your mark). Together, these assessments are designed to provide a balanced evaluation of your knowledge and understanding.

Will I receive university credits?

Yes, you’ll earn 15 Level 11 credits at postgraduate level from the University of Aberdeen. You can use these credits to build towards a Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert) in Psychology in the Workplace or an MSc in Psychological Studies from the University of Aberdeen.