Perspectives

This month, Kai’s journal involves a lot of juggling but he is aiming high. Well at least to "above below-average".

In the Marex office, I’ve been working on a safety case thorough review for a client, with the assistance with my manager Neil (Smeaton).

Neil is a risk guru: ask him anything about risk and he knows it!

A safety case must be reviewed every five years and this is where a thorough review comes into play.

A thorough review is when we assess if the existing safety case is up to HSE’s standards. For this project, the first step was to review the existing safety case and compare it to the HSE’s guidance for an adequate, up-to-standard case.

Neil and I then ran a workshop with the client. This workshop was to rebuild the BowTies.

BowTieXP is the most used risk assessment software that is based on the bowtie method. It enables you to easily create bowtie diagrams to assess risk.

The crew from the rig attended the workshop, this enabled us to get specifics about the rigs safety equipment, methods, maintenance etc.

Neil did the majority of the talking whilst I sat back and relaxed.

I am joking: I was managing the BowTieXP software duties. I had to edit the bowties to the crew’s specific answers. I have to say after the workshop I can manoeuvre around the software with ease!

Once the workshop was over, my job was to tidy the BowTie document.

We took a lot of notes during the workshop to speed up the process. I enjoyed this task, as it was something different for me.

Neil then asked me to create a BowTie workshop report which included all our findings from the workshop and would be a sub document to the thorough review. I was able to create this report all by myself.

Something I was quite proud of and shows how much I have come on in these past few months.

Meanwhile, the due dates for my uni assessments are getting closer.

I had two assessments coming up, both due on Sunday 14 May.

Assessment 1 is a standard questionnaire which became available on 8 May and I had one week to complete it.

I much prefer this sort of assessment to recording myself talk over a presentation - which was the case for the past two modules.

I have been studying when I can (sadly most of the time on weekends) to familiarise myself with the topic contents again. This module, analytical and problem solving, has a big focus on maths, using a lot of analytical techniques such as distribution, probability and other math topics I haven’t seen since higher maths.

Good thing I liked higher maths, or I would’ve hated this module!

Assessment 2 was a modelling report. I had to use the coding language R to produce a report that consisted of text and code.

I liked this assessment because I felt I was producing something that could potentially be useful for the business or our clients. It was basic information I calculated but it’s a start to what I could be producing in 3rd and 4th year. An example of my findings was I was able to predict the number of accidents offshore in the North Sea using historical data. Now predictable data is a rough guidance and never 100% correct but it’s something that companies can use to their benefit.

And about the work-uni-life balance … and no, I’m not relying just on coffee.

A huge benefit for working for Marex in the Neo Space office is the free gym membership. It’s a modern gym with everything you need and I take full advantage of this free membership, going four times a week. Having the gym on my doorstep allows me to achieve my gym goals with my development goals and turning up everyday as there’s no excuses.

And I have recently taken up a golf membership at Edzell golf club. My goal for this summer is to play as much as possible on the weekends - and during the week if possible  - and get to a level where I am above below-average (ha ha).

• Twenty-one year-old Kai is studying at RGU for his BSc (Hons) in Data Science on a graduate apprenticeship. Students are employed full-time throughout their course of studies and combine course learning with work-based learning. The course itself provides students with the knowledge, understanding and skills required to help their organisations gain insight from their data to drive innovation and efficiency.