Technical Education: Bridging the Gap in Health and Safety in Small Businesses

Details

• Personal Author:
  Parker, David L.
• Description:
  Background: Public technical colleges enroll and educate more than half of the nation's 11 million technical students and play a critical role in providing young workers with the skills required to obtain high-paying employment in competitive job markets. However, technical colleges do not adequately prepare students to recognize and protect themselves from workplace hazards. After graduation, young workers in hazardous trades such as metal fabrication and auto collision repair are employed primarily in small enterprises where they rarely receive health and safety training. TECHS was designed and implemented in order to develop and assess a new model provide and assess a new model for health and safety education at the post-secondary level. Methods: Four discussion groups (2 each with ABCT and MTT instructors) were held at HTC and SCTCC. Groups assessed barriers and facilitators to teaching health and safety in CTCs. Instruction was usually unscripted, task-centered, and generally consisted of ad hoc teaching moments triggered by near-misses, incidents, or unsafe acts observed in the shop. In spite of their lack of training, instructors acted as health and safety experts and the sole source of knowledge and feedback for students. With input from faculty, curricula were subsequently developed for both trades. Initially, curricula were implemented in HCTC and SCTCC and subsequently expanded to RC. New curricula consisted of 15 and 9 modules respectively in ABCT and MTT. Each module includes classroom presentation(s), student handout(s), lab activities, homework, and a quiz. Prior to use, instructors attended a paid training on content and delivery. Results: Curricula were implemented in three colleges. Health and safety knowledge was survey among students who received none, one, and two years of TECHS training. Even though instructors participated in each step of curricula development the new materials were rarely delivered in their entirety or as planned during the school year. During the 1st year of instruction, student mean knowledge scores increased by 4 to 30 (ABCT), and 3 to 10 (MTT). During the 2nd year of instruction the mean knowledge scores changed by -2 to 13 (ABCT), and 0 to 5 (MTT). Skills and work practices scores improved by less than 10 in each trade during a 2- year period. Instructors cited lack of time and concern for their students' workload as primary barriers to curricula adoption. A follow-up survey of instructors in ABCT revealed that a lack health and safety knowledge among instructors is a serious national problem. Conclusions: Instructors are often hired directly from businesses and enter a new teaching environment with substantial misinformation. It should not be expected that problems related to training new workers will be resolved absent a substantial national effort to ensure that faculty at both the secondary and post-secondary levels receive training about the hazards faced by workers. Efforts should be made to develop standardized trade-specific curricula that can used by instructors. Curricula should include competency-based testing that will guide faculty. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety Small Business Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Curriculum Development Safety Education Small Businesses Training Young Workers
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-29
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070208
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R01-OH-010532, 2020 Jul; :1-29
• Contact Point Address:
  David L. Parker, MD, MPH, HealthPartners Institute for Research and Education, 8170 33rd Ave S, Bloomington, MN 55425-4516
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing ; Services
• Performing Organization:
  HealthPartners Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20140901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20180831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:eeb5115a872a53046d717a53238a6dd0f1ee36bb1c859ecf141d003e3ca10aea07609de42484b91deb9d039841714785a47c486dbecd27ba2f5fa39d83e7a336
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219272/cdc_219272_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 300.94 KB ]