Training and Assessing Non-Technical Skills

Book excerpt: Providing a practical guide to the training and assessment of non-technical skills within high-risk industries, this book will be of direct interest to safety and training professionals working within aviation, healthcare, rail, maritime, and other high-risk industries. Currently, each of these industries are working to integrate non-technical skills into their training and certification processes, particularly in light of increasing international regulation in this area. However, there is no definitive guidance to assist practitioners within these areas with the design of effective non-technical skills training and assessment programs. This book sets out to fully meet this need. It has been designed as a practically focussed companion to the 2008 book Safety at the Sharp End by Flin, O'Connor and Crichton. While Safety at the Sharp End provides the definitive exploration of the need for non-technical skills training, and examines in detail the main components of non-technical skills as they relate to safe operations, the text does not focus on the "nuts and bolts" of designing training and assessment programs. To this end, Training and Assessing Non-Technical Skills: A Practical Guide provides an extension of this work and a fitting companion text.