Elements and Performance Criteria

Context
Types of exercise may include:
· scenario analyses
· case studies
· role plays
· discussion exercises / desk top exercises
· functional centre exercises (specific task environments within the workplace)
· field exercises
· synthetic training
· high level architecture
· multimedia
· virtual reality
· distributed interactive software

The design process may include:
· determination of activity management structure
· development of documentation
· design of activity
· issuing notifications
· briefings and debriefings

Activity personnel refers to people who assist in the conduct of the incident exercise and may include:
· activity director
· directing staff/coordinators/facilitators
· safety officers
· assessors/umpires
· public relations staff
· casualty simulators
· role player liaison officers
· administrative/welfare personnel to support learning and assessment tools

Activity documentation may include:
· activity notification
· activity management checklists
· general instructions
· safety instructions
· timetable/schedule of events, exercise plan
· activity inputs

HSE
All operations to which this unit applies are subject to stringent Health, Safety and Environment requirements, which may be imposed through State or federal legislation, and these must not be compromised at any time. Where there is an apparent conflict between performance criteria and HSE requirements, the HSE requirements take precedence.

Relationship to Major Hazard Facility Legislation
· Organisations within the Chemical, Hydrocarbons and Oil Refining industries may find themselves falling under the provisions of various Major Hazard Facilities legislation. In developing this unit consideration has been given to the requirements of Sections 8 and 9 of the National Standard For The Control Of Major Hazard Facilities [NOHSC:1014(2002)] and the National Code Of Practice For The Control Of Major Hazard Facilities [NOHSC:2016(1996)].
· This unit will assist individuals to meet some of their obligations under the relevant State or Territory legislation. Responsibility for appropriate contextualisation and application of the unit to ensure compliance however, remains with the individual organisation.

Assessment context and methods
· Assessment for this unit of competency will be by way of simulation or observation under incident conditions. The unit will be assessed in as holistic a manner as is practical and may be integrated with the assessment of other relevant units of competency. Assessment will occur over a range of situations which can include a variety of incident circumstances.
· Simulations must, as closely as possible, approximate actual incident conditions and should be based on the actual facility. Assessments should include 'walk throughs' of the relevant competency components and may include the use of case studies/scenarios and role plays.
· This unit of competency requires a significant body of knowledge which will be assessed through questioning and the use of 'what if' scenarios both in the facility (during demonstration of normal operations and walk throughs of abnormal operations) and off the site.

Critical aspects
Consistent performance should be demonstrated. In particular look to see that competence in this unit reflects successful assessment in the critical aspects of:
· clearly identifying the need for the exercise
· planning, conduct and evaluation of exercise
· hazard identification and control
· demonstrated understanding and ability to address Health Safety and Environment issues
· briefing and debriefing

These assessment activities should include a range of problems, including new, unusual and improbable situations which may have been generated from past workplace incident history, incidents in similar workplaces around the world, hazard analysis activities and/or similar sources.

Resource implications
Assessment will require (1) access to an accurately simulated environment or (2) a suitable method of gathering evidence of responding ability over a range of situations. A bank of scenarios/case studies/what ifs and a bank of questions to probe the reasoning behind the observable actions will likewise be required.

Other assessment advice
It may be appropriate to assess this unit concurrently with other relevant units.

Essential knowledge
The knowledge referred to in the evidence guide for this Unit includes:
· legislative and regulatory arrangements relating to incident management
· incident response plan and management systems
· incident management concepts and principles
· adult learning principles
· relevant networks
· problem solving and decision making techniques
· assessment and review techniques
· project management principles

Competence also includes the ability to isolate the causes of problems within the incident response system and to be able to distinguish between causes of problems indicated by:
· exercises are not conducted according to expectations
· unintended or inappropriate exercise outcomes
· mismatches between equipment and incident requirements
· lack of appropriate feedback at the conclusion of training exercises
· an injury occurs during the conducting of the training exercise