Safety Management Systems (SMS) constitute an integral part of contemporary transport organisations' approach to a systematic, comprehensive and explicit management of safety risks. In this course, you will learn the underpinning concepts of Safety Management Systems applicable to aviation, rail and marine transport systems, including both the regulatory provisions set forth by regulators and the requirements that should be incorporated by service providers in line with their organisational contexts.

In the first part of this course, you will learn how an SMS should be designed and implemented, including setting an overarching safety policy and corresponding objectives. A range of topics will be addressed to provide you with the knowledge and skills to apply some of the key functions within an SMS, including principles of risk management, analysis of safety data, internal auditing and safety culture and the interrelationship between an SMS and other systems which may be present in the organisation (e.g., QMS, WHS).

In the second part of the course, a special emphasis will be put into how to investigate elements of an SMS as part of an incident or accident investigation. Selected case-studies and examples specific to incidents/accidents in rail, marine and aviation will be analysed with a view to interrogate the organisational deficiencies from an SMS perspective, and how conclusions thereof may assist transport professionals to implement actions to improve the effectiveness of SMS.