A New Perspective for Human Factors Training“I have sat on 6 HF courses - and this was by far the best.”
This was how one participant summed up the latest ground-breaking open training course from Baines Simmons – Human Factors - General Principles. The course was held this week at the company’s Aviation Safety Academy at Fairoaks Airport in Surrey. Delegates came from the UK, mainland Europe, Scandinavia and Africa, and from a wide range of aviation backgrounds.
Designed by Baines Simmons Consultant, Jenny O’Donnell, in collaboration with City University London, this course offers the unique opportunity to gain an elective module credit towards one of the University’s world-leading MSc Aviation Management Programmes - Air Transport Management, Air Safety Management and Aircraft Maintenance Management.
Jenny O’Donnell, course leader explains why choose this course, “The General Principles MSc module takes a new approach to Human Factors training. It is more academic in content than our other Human Factors courses and as such explores human information processing in depth and the latest thinking on error and how to avoid it. There are some elements of overlap between the other courses, such as examination of performance shaping factors. But this course focuses less on maintenance and has been designed to appeal to a wider section of the aviation community.”
The ‘wider section’ was certainly in evidence for this initial course, facilitated by Jenny from 15-17 March. The aviation community was represented by pilots, flight safety and maintenance safety officers, air traffic control specialists, managers from commercial airlines and a flight safety inspector from a national aviation authority.
The participants’ reasons for attending the course were also varied. Many of the delegates were already enrolled with City University London and were attending the course as part of their MSc programme. For some, this was their first taster of Human Factors training. Others had considerable knowledge of the subject and were looking to deepen their understanding of human behaviour in the workplace, to learn about new developments in the field of human factors, to share experiences with colleagues – all ultimately leading to improvements in safety performance levels in their organisations.
"Totally electric delivery" "Really well facilitated" "Thanks to Jenny O'D"
Judging by the post-course feedback comments, all the participants, whatever their job roles and reasons for attending, had an inspirational three days, learned a lot, enjoyed the diversity of the topics, benefitted from the interaction with other colleagues from the aviation industry and left with a wider perspective of Human Factors issues.
Commenting on the course, Corina Canavan, Learning and Development Manager for Baines Simmons said, “Human Factors – General Principles is a very exciting development for Baines Simmons. Having the recognition from City University London that the course meets MSc degree level requirements enhances the already very high standards of our open training. This module takes a more academic approach, revealing the science behind Human Factors, but as with all Baines Simmons courses, it also provides practical solutions that can be applied to real issues. This winning combination gives participants the dual advantages of attending an industry-led practical application course underscored with the academic rigour of the MSc standard.”
Corina stressed that the course does not need to be part of an MSc programme, “By itself, as a standalone course, it can be very beneficial as it offers different perspectives on the subject of Human Factors. This is particularly true, for example, for pilots who are CRM trained.”
However, if attending the courses ignites the inspiration for further study, this is possible. After the course, an attendee can complete a post-course assessment within a year, submit it to City University London for appraisal and enrol for other modules leading to the MSc.
Baines Simmons is looking at the possibilities of developing more modules with City University London in the future. Meanwhile, Human Factors – General Principles looks set to be a very popular course. Another date is to be scheduled for later in the year and bookings are already being taken.
“A very good perspective of HF! I wish my top management would attend ….”
