Master in Integrated Management Systems - HSEQThe Coordinator of the Environment and Occupational Risk Prevention Area of Bureau Veritas Training, Eva María Iglesias, talks to us in this post about the origin of the Master in Integrated Management Systems – HSEQ , of which she is Coordinator and Professor.
More than four years ago, at Bureau Veritas Centro Universitario, we proposed the creation of a Master's degree that would cover all the areas of Management Systems in which most students asked us for information to improve their training.
The market for students from Latin America was analyzed, since a major deficiency was detected in terms of training in Management Systems , and it was also found that Latin American companies, which were increasingly internationalized, demanded professionals trained in this subject.
A very exhaustive study was carried out and this need was evaluated with partners from Latin America with whom Bureau Veritas Centro Universitario collaborates, since it was common for cryptocurrency data them to continually inform us of the need to have a complete, integrative Master's degree that would allow students to acquire the professional skills necessary to be HSE Coordinator or Director in their companies.
It is obvious that in recent years, market needs have gradually led to a demand for more specialised professionals , which has led to the need for organisations to have people with a highly qualified professional profile and organisational skills within Senior Management.
These HSE Directors are managers capable of taking into account international agreements and regulations to anticipate the possibility of poor production practices that generate bad products, impacts on the environment and harm to their workers.
That is to say, we have gone from corrective and sanctioning regulations to promoting preventive and integrative conduct through regulations , managing to evaluate and implement preventive measures so that said environmental and professional risks do not materialize in order to provide any type of product and/or service with high standards of Excellence.
These professionals are increasingly in demand, both in multinational companies with branches around the world, as well as in small SMEs and companies, which want to manage appropriately and in accordance with current regulations and with minimal impact on the health of workers, the Environment and providing an excellent service and/or product .
Obviously, the adoption by these companies of voluntary standards from International Organizations such as ISO or OHSAS, ISO 9001:2008 for Quality, ISO 14001:2004 for the Environment and the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard for Safety and Health at Work has contributed greatly to this preventive business conduct, with its voluntary implementation companies assume commitments to continuous improvement, prevention of pollution, prevention of damage and deterioration of health, compliance with the legislation applicable to each activity, etc.
These standards will be revised next year and the latest version will be published in 2015 , which will mean a change, but the preventive philosophy is deeply rooted in each of them.
But what is the real profile of an HSE Director? It goes far beyond a mere systems manager; their responsibilities are very demanding and require them to have the ability and competence to:
Evaluate and organize environmental and health risks, critical points of production processes for Quality and implement solutions to ensure or maximize staff safety, hygiene and the Environment (control of spills, emissions into the atmosphere, acoustic studies, production engineering, etc.)
Easily manage administrative and financial control tasks of organizations that report directly to the Senior Management of any company.
Raise awareness and train staff so that HSE measures are applied and understood at all levels.
Organize work teams in close collaboration with those responsible for other departments as part of Senior Management.
Check the influence of your organization on stakeholders in order to analyze the extent to which business activity affects the environment in which it operates.
This professional profile requires a higher university education , at the level of a Bachelor's or Engineering degree, and professional experience in sectors of activity in which high-level technical tasks have had to be performed in the related areas of knowledge: Quality, Environment, Occupational Risk Prevention, Corporate Social Responsibility, etc.
But the most normal thing is that this type of professional profile is acquired through internal promotion in organizations, that is, Quality managers who have been assuming environmental management and control functions , and later, Safety and Health of workers .
But knowledge in these areas is acquired directly from experience and from facing real problems , since organizational needs dictate.
This is due in part to the fact that until relatively few years ago there was no formal university training, either at undergraduate or postgraduate level, related to Integrated Management Systems (abbreviated as GIS in Spain).
It was found that there was a university training offer adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in this field at a national level, and that it is aimed at professionals with extensive experience in one of the areas but who want to specialize in Integrated Management Systems and complement their training and their possibility of improvement in organizations.