Table of Contents
Introduction
Health and Safety Training offers an organization the opportunity to enhance the knowledge of workers to work safely and in a manner that does not impact adversely on the environment. (Healthy Working Lives, 2020) “The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to provide free of charge training, instruction and supervision necessary for all its employees”.
Health and Safety Training Importance
Training courses must contain content that can have a positive impact on trainees to be able to apply the knowledge at work. (American Society of Safety Professionals, 2020) Provides insight into the international standard ANSZI Z490.1 which offers a guide to train workers for health and safety related topics. Health and Safety training must be offered upon a needs assessment of a training activity so it can serve its main purpose of promoting health and safety at all levels.
Training Design and Delivery
Training design involves putting together health and safety information from different sources. Sources must be credible and the learning outcome of the training program must be met. A good content has to be simple, straightforward and easy to understand.
Sterling Safety Services provides training services as part of its core services. When training is requested by Clients, an instructional designer from our Learning and Development Department is put to work. An instructional designer job plans and create training content. Innovation has to be applied in making health and safety training content fit for purpose. As a minimum criteria our facilitators complete a Level 6 health and safety course or its equivalent and it is desirous to have attained some professional membership like a GradIOSH.
Use of Technology in Training
Microsoft Power Point software is a tool employed to create training slides. It may as well be used for other reports which can be delivered to workers or senior management.
It offers features that make it easy to organize training content with a combination of text, video, audio, picture and infographics. The use of diagrams and video illustrations can offer opportunities to enhance trainee engagement. By so doing, long and boring trainings can be eliminated. The major limitation however is that some ideas cannot be presented and may have to be demonstrated practically or through some other means.
Communication Methods in Training
Different communication methods like verbal communication, written communication and infographics are considered when planning to produce a power point presentation. Although these methods have their merits, they also have limitations. Written communication is quite effective to present a topic for health and safety training but is overly useless for a worker who is an illiterate. Written presentations can also be easily stored for future reference but can be catastrophic if not managed with high expertise and care.
One sure way a health and safety trainer can get immediate feedback during a presentation is through verbal communication.
Training Evaluation and Effectiveness
After workers undergo training, especially having worked for a period of time, an evaluation exercise has to be carried out to check how effective training has been applied on the job. The Evaluations can be carried out as many times and Gaps identified create opportunities to retrain or review instructional design. The evaluations can be in the form of site inspections, feedback meetings, review of health and safety records.
Regulatory Approval and Standards
Some trainings cannot be held without the approval of enforcement agencies. For example a training to enhance the knowledge of workers to handle radioactive materials must be approved by the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Similarly a fire fighting training must also be approved by the Ghana National Fire Service. This is a way of also ensuring that acceptable standards are followed to deliver these critical trainings. Whereby any certificate issued to participants upon completion of the session will be recognized and accredited.
Assessment and Fair Evaluation
When preparing, delivering and marking tests and assignments the ability of the workers in terms of knowledge, skill their level of understanding should be considered. There has to be consistency and fairness in marking. There must be a marking scheme to guide the process of assessing assignments in various areas. In the case of a health and safety related essay, grammar, technical construction, referencing and word count can be used as indicators to assess a candidate.
Where multiple choice are used for assessment, the trainer presents answers on the presentation so trainees can exchange work for marking.
Conclusion
Effective written and verbal communication is possible when participants of a training program are able to relate to the content of training and the language of instruction. Whereas a dominant language like English is usually used, the trainer strives to achieve the purpose of the training with reference to the learning outcome. The mode of communication has to be first of all clear. This is very critical because when it is not clear, it poses a risk that an incident may occur. There is also the issue of engagement that allows for the trainees to participate through verbal communication. Thereby deepening their understanding. (805 Words)
References
Healthy Working Lives, 2020. Instruction and training Clear instructions, information and adequate training for your employees. [Online]
American Society of Safety Professionals, 2020. Safety Training (Z490). [Online]
Bibliography
Dalto, J., 2019. Effective Safety Training: A Guide to Creating, Designing, Delivering, & Evaluating EHS Training That Works.
Safety Dimensions, 2020. How the design and delivery of your training program matters.
Schroll, R.C., 2004. ANSI Z490. 1-2001.
Cohen, A., Colligan, M.J., Sinclair, R., Newman, J. and Schuler, R., 1998.
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