Non-technical skills
New training resources and good
practice on non-technical skills for
the rail industry
What are non-technical skills?
Non-technical skills (NTS) are generic skills that
underpin and enhance technical tasks.
A technical task – like train driving – requires a
practical understanding of the relevant techniques,
procedures, roles and responsibilities, all of which are
formally assessed to ensure the person can carry out
the safety-critical task.
But apart from that specialist, technical knowledge,
safety-critical staff will also draw on a range of NTS to
carry out a task. These include the ability to take in
information, focus, and take decisions, and the they
communicate with others.
NTS play a vital role in safety by helping people to
anticipate, identify and mitigate errors.
Why are NTS important?
Who is this
relevant to?
All safety-critical staff
use non-technical skills
(NTS) in their everyday
roles.
As such, NTS
information is key to
people responsible
for managing the
competence of safety
critical staff – managers,
HR managers, heads
of operational safety,
trainers, recruitment
staff etc.
Reviews of incidents and accidents in the industry
have shown consistently that where NTS are
lacking, the ability to prevent and mitigate errors is
compromised, and so contributes to incidents taking
place. NTS have been a key focus in other safety
critical industries for many years. By taking a proactive
approach to NTS development, and integrating NTS
into competence management systems and training
programmes, it is expected that safety will improve.
New resources
The Rail Industry Skills Forum asked
RSSB to research NTS for the rail
industry. This has led to a number of
tools and related guidance designed
to help ensure that across the industry
a consistent and effective approach is
taken to the development of staff NTS.
This includes:
• A list of non-technical
skills and related
behavioural markers.
• A set of training
materials for front
line staff and their
managers (including
tools for managers to
use in reinforcing NTS
development on an
on-going basis).
• Guidance on how to
effectively integrate
NTS into competence
management systems.
• Train-the-trainer courses
to support trainers who are
new to the area of training
NTS.
Non-technical skills list
1
NTS Category
NTS Skill
Situational
awareness
Attention to detail
Overall awareness
Maintain concentration
Retain information (during
shift)
Anticipation of risk
2
Conscientiousness
Systematic and thorough
approach
Checking
Positive attitude towards
rules and procedures
3
Communication
Listening (people not
stimuli)
Clarity
Assertiveness
Sharing information
4
Decision making
and action
Effective decisions
Timely decisions
Diagnosing and solving
problems
5
Cooperation and
working with others
Considering others’ needs
Supporting others
Treating others with respect
Dealing with conflict /
aggressive behaviour
6
Workload
management
Multi-tasking and selective
attention
Prioritising
Calm under pressure
7
Self-management
Motivation
Confidence and initiative
Maintain and develop skills
and knowledge
Prepared and organised
Where can I find out more
information?
The course materials and related
guidance can be obtained from SPARK
– the rail industry’s shared on-line
knowledge portal, managed by RSSB.
You can access SPARK from
http://spark.rssb.co.uk
If you are not yet a registered SPARK
user, from the Welcome page, click the
Register button followed by Continue to
register, then complete the registration
form.
Once you have registered for SPARK,
you can access the non-technical
skills training materials by logging in to
SPARK and searching on the project
number, ‘T869’.
Note that the only groups that can
access this material on SPARK are
RSSB members and members of major
cross-industry groups.
Further information on NTS and trainthe-trainer courses can also be found
on the RSSB website – search ‘NonTechnical Skills’.
About the research by
RSSB
The NTS training resources and good
practice guide were developed on the
basis of research by RSSB for the rail
industry, in a project ‘Non-technical
skills for rail: development, piloting and
evaluation of a training course’ (ref
T869). The focus is on the driver role,
but the materials and related guidance
can be applied to all safety-critical
roles. A report of this work can be
downloaded from the RSSB website www.rssb.co.uk, click on Research-and
Development and search ‘T869’ under
‘Find a research project’.
For more information, contact RSSB:
enquirydesk@rssb.co.uk,
tel 020 3142 5400.
RSSB
RSSB is a member-driven organisation, owned by the rail industry. As a natural place for the industry
to build consensus, and being independent of any one company, RSSB has become a hub for
groups containing representatives from across the breadth of the industry. The company is limited
by guarantee and is governed by its members, and a cross-industry board that includes independent
directors and observers from the Department for Transport (DfT) and Office of Rail Regulation
(ORR).
For more information about RSSB, go to www.rssb.co.uk