Training for site HSE officers
The toolkit an HSE officer uses every day, and the first responder role most of them also carry.
- Path length
- 7½ to 8 days, usually over a quarter
- Start with
- General safety, then risk assessment
- First responder
- Emergency response programme
- Renewal
- Emergency response certificates, one year. Nothing else expires
- Certificate
- ITF certificate of completion, one per course
A site HSE officer needs the operational toolkit first: general safety, risk assessment, COSHH and permit to work. Then ISO 45001 awareness, root cause analysis and the ISO 45001 internal auditor course. On most sites they are also the first responder, which adds the emergency response programme, renewed yearly.
- 01 Enquiry
- 02 Needs analysis
- 03 Programme design
- 04 Scheduling
- 05 Delivery
- 06 Assessment
- 07 Certification
- 08 Records
Training for site HSE officers sits at step 2 of the delivery cycle. You receive a training needs matrix.
Four questions from one safety file
An auditor uses the HSE officer as the index to the safety file, and every question asks for something physical.
Show me the risk assessment for this task and what was physically installed. Show me a live permit. When was the last drill, and where is the record? Who audits the HSE function?
The first three are answered on the floor, which is why the toolkit courses come first and pay back straight away. The last one is harder. On a site with one HSE officer, the person who wrote the controls is often the person asked to audit them. The internal auditor course teaches them to audit other functions properly, and it makes the case for someone else auditing theirs.
Seven courses in order, plus the response layer
Steps 1 to 4 are the toolkit. Steps 5 to 7 build and audit the management system. The last two rows depend on the officer's role in an emergency.
| Course | What it gives the officer | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · General safety awareness for Saudi sites | The hazards that injure people on these sites, including the heat each summer brings. | 1 day |
| 2 · Risk assessment that survives an audit | A generic downloaded assessment converted into one that describes a real task on your site. | 1 day |
| 3 · COSHH chemical risk assessment | Assessments written for the chemicals actually in your store, from their safety data sheets. | ½ or 1 day |
| 4 · Permit to work, issued and closed | The six permit types, run against your own forms, ending with flawed permits to audit. | 1 day |
| 5 · ISO 45001 safety awareness | The management system the toolkit sits inside, and what an auditor expects from it. | 1 day |
| 6 · Root cause analysis for real investigations | Incident investigation that finds the cause instead of the first plausible one. | 1 day |
| 7 · ISO 45001 internal auditor | Auditing safety where the record says one thing and the floor says another. | 2 days |
| Emergency response programme | Fire safety and first aid with CPR and AED for the same group, where the officer is a first responder. | 2 days |
What the officer's file gains
Your own converted risk assessment
One real task, assessed properly, as the model for the rest of the register.
The first batch of completed COSHH assessments
Written on the day against the chemicals in your store.
Permit templates for the six activity types
With an isolation verification checklist and a permit audit checklist.
OH and S audit checklists
Written as control-verification questions rather than clause numbers.
The emergency response evidence pack
Numbered certificates valid one year, competency checklists and the trainers' qualification records.
A new officer's first quarter
An industrial services contractor in Jubail hired its first site HSE officer, who arrived to a folder of generic assessments and permit forms nobody had audited.
Steps 1 to 4 ran in the first month. The risk assessment day converted one of the contractor's own generic assessments into one that described the task as it is actually done. COSHH was run on the chemicals in the contractor's store, and the permit course used its own permit forms.
ISO 45001 awareness and root cause analysis followed in the second month, and the internal auditor course in the third, with the officer auditing a function other than their own as the practical. The emergency response programme ran for the officer alongside the contractor's shift leads, so the people who respond together trained together.
The contractor ended up holding converted assessments, COSHH assessments for its store, permit templates and audit checklists, an emergency response evidence pack with expiry dates, and a certificate per course.
Asked when an HSE officer is hired
Does the officer need all seven courses?
A full-time site HSE officer usually does. A supervisor who only needs the operational layer stops after permit to work, and we will say so when we quote rather than sell the whole path to everyone.
Why is the emergency response programme not part of the path?
Because it renews. Fire response and life support are perishable skills, so those certificates are valid for one year and the register we hand over lists the expiry. Nothing else on this page expires; when to retrain is a decision for your training matrix.
Can the courses be spread out?
Yes, and they usually are, over about a quarter. The toolkit courses first, because they pay back on the floor straight away, then the management system and the audit layer once the officer knows the site.
Can other staff join the officer's courses?
Yes. On site the course runs as your in-house group, so permit issuers can join permit to work and shift leads can join the emergency response programme. Practical courses cap at about 12 to 15 so every person does the exercise.
Where to go from here
The HSE Officer path
The seven courses in order, over a quarter, with the supervisor stop point marked.
Read moreEmergency responseEmergency response training
Fire safety and first aid, run on your site with one evidence pack.
Read moreInternal audit · 2 daysISO 45001 internal auditor training
Two days on auditing safety against what the floor shows.
Read moreITF ConsultISO 45001 consulting
When the safety management system itself needs building, not only the people.
Read morePart of one system
Every division keeps records to the same standard, so the second one you need works the way the first one did.
Give the new officer a quarter
Tell us what the site does, what the officer already holds and whether they are the first responder, and we will quote the courses in order with the emergency response layer set against its renewal date.