Effects of an occupational safety programme: A comparative study between different training methods involving secondary and vocational school students

Abstract

Strategies for incorporating proper training in occupational safety at secondary schools are important, since young workers are more likely to be injured at work. However, for a successful educational intervention, an effective Occupational Safety Programme (OSP) with appropriate training methods should be designed and implemented. This study intends to analyze and compare the effects of an OSP in students from diverse school settings, when different training methods are applied. An OSP was designed focusing on the risks related to handling machinery and maintenance tasks and delivered to 301 students from two secondary schools and two vocational schools from the North of Portugal. The sample was divided into three groups, and for each group, a different training method was applied: theory-based; demonstration-based or testimonies-based. To assess its effectiveness, a questionnaire was developed for evaluating the following dimensions: risk acceptance, safety commitment, intended safety behaviors and safety knowledge. The questionnaire was applied two weeks before and after the OSP. A significantly positive effect of the OSP was identified in all dimensions. Comparisons between the three methods showed a greater effect of the testimonies-based intervention in risk acceptance and intended safety behaviors; however, for safety knowledge and safety commitment this was the least effective method. The influence of school type was observed for the safety behaviors and safety commitment dimensions. In conclusion, this study's results suggested that more engaging methods had larger effects on student risk acceptance and intended safety behaviors, while expositive and demonstrative methods were more suitable to improve safety knowledge and commitment.

Effects of safety and health training in metalworking small-sized enterprises

“…Previous studies suggest that more engaging methods, the ones that involved the participation of workers, are the more effective in promoting safer behaviours (Zimmer et al, 2017;Rodrigues et al, 2018). It was also verified that traditional training methods (expositive) have more positive results when they are coupled with techniques that require the involvement and the active participation of the workers (Zimmer et al, 2017;Jeschke et.…”

“…Previous studies also found that the use of images, videos and real cases studies implies higher levels of engagement and an higher effect in different OSH outcomes (see e.g. Linker et al, 2005;Rodrigues et al, 2018). Robson et al (2010), the evidence in favour of the engagement hypothesis is weak and needs further study.…”

“…OSH training is considered an important strategy to improve OSH performance, contributing to the reduction of occupational accidents and diseases (Burke et al, 2006, Burke et al, 2011, Robson et al 2010Rodrigues et al, 2018). Several studies have proven the effectiveness of training in improving safety commitment and safety behaviours (Arezes & Miguel, 2008;Burke et al, 2006;Burke et al, 2011;Colligan & Cohen, 2004;Robson et al, 2010).…”

“…Another advantage of training is the improvement in the level of risk perception (Rodrigues et al, 2018;Vale, 2015), which in turn has a significant impact on the level of employee behaviour (Arezes & Miguel, 2008;Flaten et al, 2005;Rodrigues et al, 2015b;Stewart-Taylor & Cherries, 1998). The perceived severity, perceived barriers and perceived benefits are also considered important dimensions in the adoption of safe behaviours.…”

“…The factor loads from the exploratory factorial analysis as well as the Cronbach's alpha values for each scale are presented in Table 1. The total scores determined for each dimension and used in the subsequent analyses were determined considering the obtained loadings, in the same way as in previous studies (see, e.g., Rodrigues et al, 2018). Table 2 presents the effects of the pedagogical intervention, through the two methods, on risk perception, safety behaviours and OSH knowledge, before and after the training intervention.…”