In the assessing world, the impact of non-technical skills (NTS) can be exposed when exploring safety improvements and reducing incidents.

These NTS include an individual’s abilities to carry out a task, personality, interpersonal skills and motivations, which all have a strong correlation to their technical skills.

In 2012 the Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) published some key work research that identified 26 NTS for train drivers. These NTS included elements such as situational awareness, communication, workload management, self-management and working with others.   The research indicated a growing trend in NTS contributing to incidents.

AssessTech has recently launched an NTS training course, which aims at exploring and dealing with these NTS impacts in situations to reduce safety-related incidents.  The first course attendees were assessors from MTR Elizabeth Line (MTREL).  Lisa Gillman from MTREL felt the course was well prepared, informative and well presented.

Learning and Development Consultant at AssessTech, Simon Grove, who delivered the course, commented, “It is so important for assessors to understand human factors and non-technical awareness.  This course is designed to pull out what these things really mean and provide rail-specific examples to bring them to life.”

If you would like to find out more details about the NTS for Assessors course or book it for your organisation, please contact: bookings@assesstech.com

Alan Hollowell

Competence Development Manager, MTREL

Most of my non-technical knowledge has been self-taught, gained through research and discussions with others.  As an assessor, you sometimes forget about some of the NTS skills that aren’t at the forefront of your mind, so by being able to go on a dedicated course looking at all of these areas, I was able to explore other NTS skills.  The course format was good, and Simon made it interactive and engaging, given that it was delivered online during the current COVID pandemic.  I would definitely recommend the course to other assessors and front-line staff.