Graduate Certificate in Safety Leadership

Safety is a critical aspect of a range of industries, including aviation, mining, construction, health care, transport, events, tourism, and many more. This graduate certificate can be the launching pad to a new career in safety or could help you advance your existing career in this field, including to the manager and director level.

Higher education

To be eligible for admission to the Graduate Certificate in Safety Leadership, applicants must:

• hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised University (or another tertiary education institution of equivalent standing)
• OR have completed a minimum of four years of relevant work experience in industry - applicants will have either operational of safety equipment experience in an industry that has some kind of plausible safety concern, or where man-made disasters can happen (for example, construction, mining, oil and gas, aviation, healthcare, catering etc or in areas of IT, electricity, shipping, insurance depending on their documented experience).

Note: Degrees from overseas institutions must be assessed as equivalent to a recognised Australian bachelor-level degree.

English Proficiency Requirements

English language requirements apply to International applicants and other applicants whose previous study was undertaken in a language other than English. The minimum English language requirements for such applicants for entry to this program are as follows:

• A minimum overall band score of 6.5 on IELTS (Academic) with no sub-score of less than 6.0
• OR a minimum score of 575 on TOEFL
• OR an internet-based (iBT) TOEFL score of 79 (no sub-score less than 19)
• OR no score less than 3+ in each skill of the ISLPR (conducted by ISLPR Language Services only)
• OR a minimum overall score of 176 (no score less than 169) on C1 Advanced (formerly Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English) or C2 Proficiency (formerly Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English)
• OR an overall score of 58 in the Pearson Test of English (Academic) with no score less than 50.

English test results must be no more than two years old.

Griffith University grants credit and recognition of prior learning which may relate to prior formal learning or prior informal and non-formal learning. For more information, please visit the following website:

• Credit transfer

Learn the skills necessary to enact a new kind of safety leadership that puts a focus on the practical expertise needed to get the job done. This graduate certificate will help you advance from the simple, linear cause-effect thinking that has typically characterised safety work in Australia and help you to challenge pre-occupations with process and compliance. You will learn about resilience, complexity science and holism and be taken on an exciting journey into a new era of safety.

You will study a range of theories that focus on why accidents happen and how they can be prevented, including normal accidents theory, human reliability theory, as well as structural and interpretational perspectives to risk and safety. With this knowledge, you will be capable of critiquing safety practices and comparing and contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of accident models, ensuring your analysis and critical thinking can help improve safety systems in your own workplace.

By looking beyond the narrow understandings of safety that still exist at many organisations and institutions, you will understand how to address safety using safety management systems and the processes and procedures that have proven roles in achieving high safety standards. Importantly, you'll view people as a solution to safety issues, not the problem, putting empathy at the centre of your plans to create a safe workplace.

Award Requirements

To be eligible for the award of Graduate Certificate in Safety Leadership (GCertSafLead), a student must acquire 40 credit points as prescribed below:

• gain 40 credit points for the prescribed courses.

This degree's structure can be found on the Griffith University website.