Rationale

Auditing is integral to determining the effectiveness of a health and safety management system and ensuring the system’s continuous improvement. This course will introduce students to the theory and later the practice of performing health and safety audits by examining the most important auditing principles and understanding how an audit process is carried out. They will develop the ability to assess the performance of a health and safety management system against the organisation’s initial goals. Finally, they will examine various audit tools and how these can be best applied to the different industries.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will be expected to:
(i)    Explain the importance of auditing in a health and safety management system.
(ii)   Understand established auditing principles and techniques. 
(iii)  Demonstrate the difference between an inspection and an audit. 
(iv)  Explain the difference between a compliance audit and a management system audit.
(v)   Deliver audits and site inspections. 
(vi)  Assess the safety culture of an organisation.
(vii) Improve auditing tools and processes.
(viii) Explain the basis for the various processes used in an audit.
(ix)  Conduct a health and safety audit of an organisation.