Elements and Performance Criteria

Context
This unit of competency includes all such items of equipment and unit operations which form part of the survival process. For your situation this may include:
life rafts and life raft deployment devices
emergency descent devices
position indicating devices
signalling devices
scramble nets and ladders
helicopter lifting strops
rescue harnesses.

Typical problems might include:
failure of safety equipment
interaction with heat or debris
prolonged exposure to the elements
risk of hypothermia.

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.

Assessment context and methods
Assessment for this unit of competency will involve an abandonment simulation. 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 will include disruptions to normal, smooth operation.

Simulation should be based on an actual abandonment and will include walk throughs of the relevant competency components. Simulations may also include the use of case studies/scenarios, role plays and 3D virtual reality interactive systems. In the case of evacuation training or training for competencies practised in life threatening situations, simulation may be used for the bulk of the training.

This unit of competency requires an application of the knowledge contained in the use of survival equipment, to the level needed to maintain control and recognise and resolve problems. This can be assessed through questioning and the use of what if scenarios both on the plant (during demonstration of normal operations and walk throughs of abnormal operations) and off the plant.

Critical aspects
The critical aspect of this competence is the preservation of life under adverse circumstances. Competence must be demonstrated in the ability to assist or to safely get oneself and others off an off-shore facility following an incident at sea and to survive in the water.

Resource implications
As a general rule assessment will require access to an appropriate emergency evacuation training facility which has the capacity to gather evidence of operating competence over a range of situations. A bank of scenarios/case studies/what ifs will be required as will a bank of questions which will be used to probe the reasoning behind the observable actions.

Essential knowledge
The knowledge referred to in the evidence guide for this unit includes:
offshore facility abandonment procedures
safe water entry procedures
life jacket operation
correct life raft and other survival craft deployment
life raft operation and management
boarding and righting a life raft
safety and emergency equipment deployment techniques
safety and emergency equipment operation
use of life-jackets
hypothermia prevention and reduction techniques (delaying and offsetting)
rescue and recovery techniques.

Competence also includes the ability to and be able to distinguish between causes of problems/alarms/fault indications such as:
delayed deployment of survival craft
life jacket malfunctions or failures
failure of life craft to deploy correctly
inability of life raft to right itself after overturning
safety equipment malfunctions
individual and group hypothermia.