Risk Assessment eLearning

Everyone onboard plays a part in managing risk and keeping the working environment safe. Understanding how risks are identified, assessed, and controlled helps prevent incidents and protects both individuals and operations. Work at sea often requires quick decisions in changing conditions. While procedures and data support these decisions, the human element is always a factor. Our judgement can be influenced by experience, assumptions, and bias, which can affect safety if not recognised and managed. Understanding how errors occur and how they can be reduced is key to improving outcomes. A strong safety culture encourages awareness, open communication, and learning from experience. Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs), such as fatigue, workload, and environment, can impact how we assess and respond to risk. Recognising these factors helps us make better, safer decisions. Risk is present in all tasks. Knowing how to carry out both formal and informal risk assessments, use a risk assessment matrix, and judge when risk is acceptable are essential skills. Controlling risk involves reducing the likelihood of an event, its consequences, or both. In this module, you will learn how risk is assessed, how human factors influence safety, how to use risk assessment tools, and how to take effective action to reduce and manage risk.