IICA now offers Functional Safety Engineer training - TÜV Rheinland Functional Safety Program

IICA has developed a new Functional Safety Engineer training course for Safety Instrumented Systems. The course is being assessed by TÜV Rheinland and IICA expects to have approval from them in early 2015. Applicants with at least three years of applicable experience who successfully complete the course and exam will be issued an FS Engineer (TÜV Rheinland) certificate by TÜV Rheinland.

The course has been developed in Australia for Australian industry by Bob Weiss, formerly of Honeywell. Bob has more than 30 years’ experience in Functional Safety (FS) and acted as Honeywell’s FS instructor for many years. The course contains:

• Completely new content structured around the IEC 61511 life cycle, and emphasises what engineers have to do to comply.
• Vendor-neutral material.
• Balanced theoretical and practical presentation using modern interactive presentation, case studies, discussion and video demonstration.
• Some non-examinable advanced material for more experienced participants.

This course is suitable for engineers and designers with some experience in Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). Engineers from non-process industries with experience in functional safety in their discipline (such as machine protection, aviation or rail) and looking for an understanding of how functional safety is applied in the process industries will also find this course appropriate. Engineers who do not satisfy the experience requirements for the FSEng (TÜV Rheinland) certificate, but who are looking for an understanding of the key principles, will find the course useful and can apply for certification later when they have gained the requisite experience. The course is not suitable for recent graduates with limited experience.

“There has been a growing need to comply with process safety design standards for several decades,” Bob Weiss advises. “This new course addresses the gaps in industry’s understanding of the standards and poor implementations in the past. Functional Safety Engineering training today needs to cover not only the theoretical fundamentals but also the practical techniques of achieving a compliant design and ensuring this passes through to the implementation stage. I am excited to develop this new course with IICA.”

The course duration is four days plus a half-day exam. Examinable material is clearly identified with time for revision included to maximise chances of exam success. Registrations for 2015 courses are currently being taken. For more information, see www.iica.org.au/info/education/.

The IICA is the principal industry organisation in Australia representing the instrumentation, control and automation industry. From its inception in 1943 it has:

• Provided a forum for IICA members to enhance their knowledge.
• Furthered the science and practice of measurement, instrumentation, control and automation.
• Improved the status of its membership.
• Fostered high standards for design and manufacture of instrumentation, automation and control techniques.
• Encouraged education in the theory and practice of instrumentation, control, automation and allied subjects.
• Promoted the standardisation of measuring instruments, control and automation.
• Supported improvements in standards and legislation affecting the practice of instrumentation, control and automation.

The IICA is a not-for-profit association.