courses

Fundamentals of Process Safety

Location Manchester, UK

Date 19th May 2025

Duration 5 days

Topic Process safety

CPD Hours 34

Price IChemE member £2,520 + VAT / Non-member £2,835 + VAT

Online | Face-to-face | In-company

Overview

This course will help you to develop your understanding of the key principles of process safety and its management. It will benefit anyone involved in the design, operation, modification or maintenance of major hazard or other process plant, who would like to develop or refresh their process safety knowledge across a broad range of topics. 

The course uses a mix of interactive exercises and workshops, case studies and theory to examine the functional areas key to managing process safety across an organisation, as defined by the IChemE Safety Centre’s (ISC) framework: leadership, knowledge and competence, engineering and design, systems and procedures, assurance, human factors, and culture.

There will be an assessment at the end of the course. Following successful completion, you will receive an IChemE pass certificate in the Fundamentals of Process Safety.

Course outline

  • The importance of process safety
  • A model for process safety
  • Hazard and risk
  • Hazard identification and evaluation
  • Consequences – toxicity and fires
  • Consequences – explosions
  • Chemical reactions
  • Flammable atmospheres
  • Project development
  • Design safety
  • Risk assessment
  • Operations
  • Asset integrity
  • Management of change
  • Management systems
  • Human factors
  • Leadership and culture
  • Process safety performance
  • Emergency response

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, you will understand:

  • the key principles of process safety and its management
  • the human, environmental and business consequences of poor process safety
  • the key factors influencing the basis of process safety
  • the hazards associated with a process plant and how the risks can be controlled
  • the key process safety requirements at each stage in the life cycle of a process plant from conceptual design through to operation, maintenance and modification
  • the interdependence of and the need for overall organisation process safety management capability
  • how to acquire further knowledge and understanding of process safety management.

Who will benefit

  • Managers, supervisors, engineers, safety personnel, and others involved in the design, operation, modification or maintenance of major hazard or other process plant
  • Anyone who would like to improve their process safety knowledge
  • Graduates, chemical and other engineers may find it beneficial in the preparation of their Chartered Member application.

What delegates say

"Aubrey was very knowledgeable and I appreciated that he took time to answer any questions fully. The pace of each session was conducted well and I enjoyed the mixed learning from slides, activities and videos."
J Kilker, BellBridge, UK

“I enjoyed the workshops and group exercises. It was good to learn about other industries and their challenges and what works and doesn't work.”
C Mahanga, Dyno Nobel, Australia

"Zsuzsanna was very engaging throughout and made sure that the group fully understood before we moved on from a subject."
A Lane, Wessex Water, UK

"Broken up into sensible frequency/duration of sessions, and the content and videos were very interesting. Very interesting course, content and presentation."
G Moss Winterbottom, Syngenta, UK

"Good balance between coverage and depth. Excellent trainer."
G MacGlennon, Petrofac, UK

"Practical real life examples were used and everything was brought back to basics by Ken which I really enjoyed."
M Higgins, Pfizer, Ireland

"The case studies really helped to relate the course material to real-world scenarios and highlight the importance of process safety."
J Carroll, William Blythe, UK

"Having the [online] course spread over five modules allowed reflection/looking at what the session meant in your own plant etc which was very beneficial."
C Cormack, GSK, UK

"I liked the fact that the course had an open book test at the end and it wasn't a test of just remembering content...it meant that I wasn't constantly worrying about remembering facts, rather I could focus on the key topics and listen attentively during the training session."
M Sarwar, Yorkshire Water, UK

Trainers

Our expert trainers have a broad range of process industry experience and have worked in many sectors including oil and gas, offshore, refining, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food processing, utilities, gas distribution, energy, power generation and in some case with government regulators. Face-to-face courses are typically delivered by two trainers. 

Upcoming courses

Online

Online courses consist of five live and interactive modules with the trainer. There will also be some work to complete independently before the course and between the live sessions. More details will be provided after you have registered.

From 27 November 2024

  • Module 1 – 27 November 2024, 14:00–17:00 GMT
  • Module 2 – 2 December 2024, 14:00–17:00 GMT
  • Module 3 – 4 December 2024, 14:00–17:00 GMT
  • Module 4 – 9 December 2024, 14:00–17:00 GMT
  • Module 5 – 11 December 2024, 14:00–17:00 GMT

From 10 March 2025

  • Module 1 – 10 March 2025, 10:00–13:00 GMT
  • Module 2 – 13 March 2025, 10:00–13:00 GMT
  • Module 3 – 18 March 2025, 10:00–13:00 GMT
  • Module 4 – 21 March 2025, 10:00–13:00 GMT
  • Module 5 – 26 March 2024, 10:00–13:00 GMT

From 21 March 2025

  • Module 1 – 21 March 2025, 11:00–14:00 AWST/MYT / 13:00–16:00 AEST / 16:00–19:00 NZDT
  • Module 2 – 25 March 2025, 11:00–14:00 AWST/MYT / 13:00–16:00 AEST / 16:00–19:00 NZDT
  • Module 3 – 28 March 2025, 11:00–14:00 AWST/MYT / 13:00–16:00 AEST / 16:00–19:00 NZDT
  • Module 4 – 1 April 2025, 11:00–14:00 AWST/MYT / 13:00–16:00 AEST / 16:00–19:00 NZDT
  • Module 5 – 3 April 2025, 11:00–14:00 AWST/MYT / 13:00–16:00 AEST / 16:00–19:00 NZDT

Live sessions are delivered via Microsoft Teams. If you don't already have this installed, you can join as a guest in order to access the training. 

Face-to-face 

  • 18–22 November 2024, Melbourne, Australia
  • 18–22 November 2024, Reading, UK
  • 10–14 February 2025, Rugby, UK
  • 19–23 May 2025, Manchester, UK
  • 26–30 May 2025, Melbourne, Australia
  • 9–13 June 2025, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 6–10 October 2025, Reading, UK

Not available then?

Register your interest in alternative dates.

Fees

Online & face-to-face – UK

  • IChemE member £2,520 + VAT
  • Non-member £2,835 + VAT

Online – Australia

  • IChemE member AU$4,920 + GST
  • Non-member AU$5,542 + GST

Face-to-face – Australia

  • 2024 IChemE member AU$4,620 + GST
  • 2024 Non-member AU$5,300 + GST
  • 2025 IChemE member AU$4,920 + GST
  • 2025 IChemE member AU$5,540 + GST

Face-to-face – Malaysia

  • IChemE member 10,575 MYR
  • Non-member 12,600 MYR

How to register

Select your preferred course from the list of upcoming start dates and go to the 'Book course' button at the bottom of the page.

More than one person to train?

Multi-place discounts

Discounts are available to companies booking more than one place. Bookings must be made at the same time to receive the discount.

  • 2 places – 10% discount
  • 3 places –15% discount
  • 4 or more places – 20% discount

In-company training

This course can be delivered to corporate teams, either on-site or online. This could be a cost-effective option if you have several people requiring the training. Content can be tailored to your specific requirements. Request a quotation.

Attendance certificate & CPD hours

An e-certificate will be issued at the end of the course to confirm attendance and CPD hours logged. Please note that you must attend the whole course and successfully complete the assessment to receive the certificate. 

In the case of online courses, CPD hours should be used as an approximate guide and will vary depending on the preferred approach of the delegate and to what extent additional learning is completed.

For participants in Malaysia, this course has been awarded 20 CPD hours by the Board of Engineers Malaysia.

Contact Phone +44 (0)1788 534496

Contact Email courses@icheme.org

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Associated course

Human Factors in the Chemical and Process Industries, Module One: Managing Human Factors

Learn about the key human factors concepts within risk management.

Dr Ken Patterson

Trainer

Dr Ken Patterson

After a 10 year career as an industrial chemist with experience of both lab work and plant operation, Ken joined HSE in 1986 and became a Principal Specialist Inspector, dealing with process safety. He worked as a field inspector across the North of England and spent periods in HSE headquarters, in major hazards and operational research. He moved to Hickson & Welch in 1994, after the company’s major accident, as their Health and Safety Manager. In 2016, he retired from Synthomer, an international polymer group with manufacturing sites across the world, where he was Group Risk and SHE manager.

Ken was a member of the working group which wrote IChemE’s Fundamentals of Process Safety course and has taught the course many times. He chaired the working group which produced the revised third edition of the CIA’s Occupied Buildings guidance and was a member of the UK Chemical Weapons Convention Advisory Committee until his retirement. He has been involved in implementing IEC 61508 since the late 1990s and has taught IChemE's Layer of Protection Analysis course since his retirement. In 2011, he was awarded the Franklin Medal by IChemE for his work in process safety.

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