Interested in a simple Skills Scan and Learning Progress Tracker tool for the Fire safety engineer (degree) standard?
Knowledge
K1: The mathematical, scientific and engineering principles, methods and modelling that contribute and help to develop the design and construction to create a fire safe and sustainable built and natural environment. The analysis and understanding of fire growth and smoke movement, determining the behaviour of materials in fire, the behaviour of structure and people's reaction to fire, as well as limitations that come with different analytical approaches.
K2: Understanding of the first principles of fire engineering including: fire dynamics, smoke dynamics, heat transfer, human behaviour, psychological impact of fire on humans, physiological impacts of fire (tenability), combustion process, products of combustion, structural response.
K3: Legal and regulatory frameworks, that govern the life cycle of the built environment such as Building Regulations, Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order.
K4: The differences between regulation, statutory guidance, British and European Standard guidance, and guidance produced by others, e.g. trade bodies.
K5: The application of the regulatory framework affecting the life cycle of the building i.e. from concept design through to occupation and beyond.
K6: Construction fundamentals including what makes a structure, construction methods and construction types. What designers are involved in the design of a structure (e.g. structures and their component parts), how they fundamentally work together as a system, and key design decision drivers (i.e. sustainability, energy, natural lighting etc.). The different fire hazards that arise from different construction methods (modular, mass timber, timber frame, etc). An understanding of common fire safety defects.
K7: Fire performance and material classifications (including reaction to fire, fire resistance and surface spread of flame), the test procedures associated with these and the certification process. Limitations of the tests and the applicability and suitability of the tests for the proposed purpose or function. This will include the difference between direct field of application and extended field of applications and limitation of such assessments.
K8: Principles of both active and passive groups of fire protection systems and the individual systems within both groups. Understanding of the principles to include function and application, cause and effect matrices, cost benefit analysis, interaction between systems, limitations, design freedoms and compensations, their design and use during and after construction.
K9: The principles, techniques and methodologies of risk assessment used to evaluate the impact of fire safety on life, property and environment in the built environment. This includes the importance and limitations of tools used to measure, enhance or protect welfare, health and safety and sustainability.
K10: Management and maintenance requirements for different fire safety strategies, systems and the impact these may have on owners / tenants during the life cycle of the building.
K11: A range of research techniques used to develop acceptable and safe solutions to fire engineering problems and the use of current and emerging technologies, products and fire safety data and research. Understanding of the use and validation of software, codes and data gathering to model, evaluate, test, build and manage fire safe buildings with an awareness of limitation of software and data.
K12: Building life cycle management, using acquired knowledge to understand the impact of their design from a commercial and practical viability viewpoint and demonstrate an awareness of fire safety beyond design into construction and occupation. This includes how fire safety measures are specified, constructed and maintained by others.
K13: Managing teams and developing staff to meet changing technical and managerial needs including reviewing and appraising performance in relation to delivery of fire engineering projects.
K14: The principles and techniques of effective project management to time cost and quality. Utilising change-management techniques and impacts on project design and delivery. Understanding the design and construction stages RIBA, BIM and other PM tools.
K15: Safe systems of work, their management and application.
K16: UK Engineering Council’s and other relevant codes of conduct and ethical principles.
K17: The capabilities and limitations of the fire service and how building design can facilitate safe and effective fire service intervention. Firefighting objectives that may need to be considered during an operational incident include: firefighter safety; life safety of building users; loss control; business continuity; property and environmental protection.
K18: The key topics related to sustainable development and how fire safety design methods can impact on these, and where challenges can arise with competing design requirements. Examples include the significance of carbon and climate change; building energy use; material selection; responsible procurement and efficient use of resources during construction; life cycle costing.
Skills
S1: Use and evaluate modelling software including smoke and evacuation models.
S2: Develop and or review, safe, technical solutions to fire safety engineering problems through the use of research techniques, current and emerging technologies, products and innovations as well as best practice. Examples include: ability to use of range of research methods to collect and analyses data to draw well-founded practical conclusions for implementation, applicable research strategy and methodology, literature searches.
S3: Communicate effectively and provide guidance to others using appropriate language to suit the audience through varying methods: design models, calculations, reports, drawings, specifications, presentations, digital media and discussions with those both inside and outside the industry.
S4: Demonstrate solutions proposed are safe and the level of safety they provide. Critically analyse prescriptive recommendations and alternative solutions, the use of bench-marking, cost/benefit and sensitivity analysis.
S5: Illustrate/present Fire Safety Engineering solutions to the appropriate level of detail for concept design and detailed design.
S6: Coordinate fire safety solutions with technical and non-technical people.
S7: Review and interpret fire related information such as product certification and test reports, cause and effect information and design detail drawings.
S8: Carry out and record the continuing professional development necessary to maintain and enhance knowledge and competence as a fire safety engineer.
S9: Interpret and apply design and quality standards including codes of practice, legal and regulatory frameworks, in the development of fire engineering solutions, Examples include: planning, designing, construction and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure in compliance with current codes, standards and legislation, industry regulations.
S10: When considering design options, evaluate the impact of fire safety engineering on society and the environment taking account of business, client and end user needs in its construction, management and use.
S11: Contribute to the management of the planning, budgeting and organisation of tasks, people and resources for a project, working to agreed quality standards, project programme and budget, within legal, contractual and statutory requirements.
S12: Contribute to effective team working and developing staff to meet changing technical and managerial needs.
S13: Apply acquired knowledge to develop and or review fire safety solutions and be able to objectively review, identify issues or offer alternative solutions/opinions including, fire engineered analysis, means of escape calculations, smoke ventilation calculations, heat transfer calculations and hazard identification and fire risk assessments.
Behaviours
B1: Adhere to the UK Engineering Council’s code of conduct and ethical principles.
B2: Be conscious of the need to create, maintain and enhance productive working relationships.
B3: Shares good practices/best practice and actively promotes their use.
B4: Take responsibility for personal development, demonstrating commitment to learning and self-improvement and be open to feedback.
Duty 1
DUTY: Research and critically evaluate complex fire engineering systems, products and processes
K1
K8
K9
K11
S1
S2
S4
S7
S13
Duty 2
DUTY: Apply advanced mathematical, scientific and engineering principles, methods and modelling to the design of fire engineering solutions
K1
K8
K9
K11
S1
S4
S13
Duty 3
DUTY: Contribute to the planning and assessing of appropriate design solutions and contribute to their refinement, evaluation and quality improvement
K5
K6
K8
K9
K10
K12
K17
K18
S1
S2
S4
S5
S7
S9
S10
S11
S13
B1
Duty 4
DUTY: Apply appropriate and relevant specialist fire safety guidance and codes of practice
K3
K4
K6
K8
K9
K10
K12
K17
K18
S1
S2
S4
S9
S13
B1
Duty 5
DUTY: Contribute to the development, assessment and quantification of acceptable alternative solutions where proprietary solutions will not work due to bespoke/unique nature of the built environment
K1
K3
K4
K6
K8
K9
K10
K11
K12
K17
S1
S2
S4
S7
S9
S10
S13
B1
Duty 6
DUTY: Apply current and relevant legislation
K3
K4
K5
K8
K9
K10
K16
S4
S9
B1
Duty 7
DUTY: Contribute to production and review of technical fire safety reports following appropriate methodologies
K9
K11
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
S7
Duty 8
DUTY: Manage own workload, internal tasks, people and resources to plan and budget and undertake quality assurance
K5
K13
K14
S3
S5
S6
S11
B3
Duty 9
DUTY: Manage teams and develop staff to meet changing technical and project need within the limit of their responsibility
K13
K14
S3
S8
S11
S12
B3
Duty 10
DUTY: Communicate complex subjects to technical and non- technical people
K13
K14
S3
S5
S6
Duty 11
DUTY: Use risk assessment and safe systems of work to keep self and others safe
K9
K10
K15
Duty 12
DUTY: Undertake specialist fire safety engineering activities in a way that contributes to sustainable development
K5
K6
K8
K9
K10
K12
K18
S5
S9
S10
Duty 13
DUTY: Carry out and record CPD necessary to maintain and enhance competence in own area of practice
K12
K13
K16
S8
S12
S13
Duty 14
DUTY: Work within the UK Engineering Council's code of ethics and adhere to the UK Engineering Council’s and other relevant codes of conduct
K16
B2
Duty 15
DUTY: Undertake fire safety engineering in a way that contributes to safe and effective fire service intervention
