About Pre conference course H: Evaluating and Embedding Biosafety Skills: From Compliance towards Competence.

This highly interactive one-day course equips biosafety professionals, laboratory supervisors, and institutional trainers with practical tools to evaluate, strengthen, and embed biosafety competence beyond traditional tick-box training models. Participants will unpack the distinctions between, training, compliance, and competence, and work through hands-on methods to translate those insights into practice. Using a step-by-step improvement plan, each participant will identify key challenges in their home institution and design a 3-month roadmap for upgrading how competence is assessed, reinforced, and sustained. The course draws from ISO 35001, CWA 16335, ISO/TS 5441, and WHO LBM4, and links theoretical frameworks to actionable strategies: job safety analysis, SOP analysis, job specification evaluation, behavioural reinforcement, observation checklists, and building psychological safety. The course is especially valuable for institutions looking to strengthen internal competency frameworks, onboarding, or coaching programs. 

Level of interaction: 

~70% interactive (simulation, group exercises, tool development, peer review);  

~30% structured input (framing sessions and concept primers) 

Target audience: 

• Biosafety professionals and biorisk managers 

• Laboratory supervisors and QA/training focal points 

• Institutional trainers and staff onboarding leads 

• Professional working in or overseeing BSL-2/3 laboratories 

• Teams seeking to align with ISO 35001, CWA 16335, or ISO 5441  

Learning Objectives: 

By the end of the course, participants will be able to: 

• Define the difference between competence, compliance, and conformity in laboratory settings 

• Explain the limitations of solely relying on competence sign-off via SOPs 

• Identify the core skills, knowledge, behaviours, and experience needed for biosafety competence 

• Undertake a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) to identify task-specific biosafety risks and required competencies 

• Assess the environmental, task, and individual factors that influence human performance and behaviour 

• Evaluate SOPs, job descriptions, and person specifications for their role in competence assessment 

• Define elements of psychological safety in high-containment environments 

• Design and use an observation checklist for practical task-based competence assessment 

• Develop a 3-month institutional improvement plan to enhance biosafety training systems

Main topics: