MESSOmining — Master's in Occupational Safety and Health Engineering for the Extractive Industry
A multidisciplinary, two-year master's programme that trains senior OSH engineers for the extractive industry, adapting FEUP's consolidated curriculum to Angola and Mozambique and integrating risk analysis and immersive (VR) training.
120
ECTS credits
4
semesters
2
years
Master's degree
Course overview
Angola and Mozambique hold vast mineral reserves, yet the mining sector faces high accident rates, insufficient legislation, weak inspection and largely incipient OSH training that ignores mining-specific risks (explosives, slope stability, underground ventilation, dust and vibration).
MESSOmining is a multidisciplinary engineering programme — drawing on psychology, education, sociology and health sciences — built on FEUP's master's curriculum running since 2005 and aligned with the European Qualifications Framework. It combines a 90-ECTS taught component with a 30-ECTS dissertation, embeds the "Safety Immersive in Mining" (SIM) concept with virtual-reality simulation, and prepares graduates to apply for the Senior OSH Technician (TSST) certificate.
General objective
To train senior staff able to develop, coordinate and control occupational risk prevention and protection across all sectors of activity — with a special focus on the extractive industry — while advancing multidisciplinary research and positioning the partner institutions as national leaders in the field.
Learning outcomes
On completing the programme, graduates will be able to:
- Collaborate in defining the company's risk-prevention policy and plan and implement the corresponding management system.
- Carry out occupational risk assessment procedures, both qualitative and quantitative, in real mining-operation scenarios.
- Design, programme, develop, manage and evaluate prevention and protection measures, including emergency plans, compliant with national and international mining OSH legislation.
- Technically coordinate OSH activities and provide framework and technical guidance to OSH professionals.
- Participate in the organisation of work across the design, execution and use phases.
- Manage external prevention/protection resources and the documentation required to manage prevention in the company.
- Promote information, training, consultation and participation of workers on occupational safety and health.
- Conduct applied research, producing a dissertation that analyses a real OSH problem in Angola or Mozambique and proposes innovative solutions.
Curriculum structure
120 ECTS over four semesters (30 ECTS each), with cumulative complexity: general OSH training in year 1 and extractive-industry specialisation plus dissertation in year 2. All units are theoretical-practical or laboratory practice (75% attendance).
Year 1 · Semester 1 — General OSH foundations
30 ECTSStatistics applied to OSH · Occupational Safety · Occupational Hygiene · Risk Assessment & Emergency Planning · Ergonomics & Occupational Health
Year 1 · Semester 2 — Management & applied assessment
30 ECTSCost Engineering & Project Evaluation · Integrated Management Systems · Health & Safety Laboratories · Psychosociology, Communication & Training · Natural & Technological Risks
Year 2 · Semester 3 — Extractive-industry specialisation
30 ECTSRisk Assessment for Mining · OSH Case Studies in Mining (immersive VR) · Dissertation Project
Year 2 · Semester 4 — Dissertation
30 ECTSDissertation in OSH Engineering, carried out in a real work context and/or as applied research, under tutorial supervision.
Who is it for
Graduates (B.Sc.) in Engineering, Geology, Occupational Safety and Health or related areas; practising OSH technicians wishing to specialise in the extractive sector; engineers and managers of mining companies coordinating or auditing OSH; and staff of regulatory bodies or labour inspectorates. English proficiency (CEFR B2+) is required for access to international technical literature.
Accreditation
The programme will be accredited by the University of Rovuma (Mozambique), with support from the University of Porto for some course units in an e-learning regime. In Angola, STRIM is studying partnerships to launch the master's at the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Huíla (Mandume ya Ndemufayo University).