The Evaluation of Health and Safety Training

A national survey of individuals responsible for health and safety training at the workplace was conducted by self-administered mailed questionnaires in 1982–83. This analysis examines the responses to the questions on evaluation. Descriptive data on the extent to which health and safety training programs are being evaluated, the types of evaluation that are done, and the technical approaches used are presented. Results suggest that the majority of current training programs are being evaluated in some way, but also that a substantial portion of these evaluations are not rigorous and do not validly assess the extent to which training is effective.

Health and safety education for worker empowerment

This article introduces a special issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine dedicated to innovative approaches to worker education in health and safety. Contributors to this issue describe applications of an "empowerment approach" in a wide variety of institutions and settings throughout the United States and Canada. In this article, empowerment education is presented and contrasted with other training methodologies. The article offers suggestions on how to implement this approach discusses evaluation issues, and summarizes the articles contained in this issue. Explored are preliminary outcomes of using this methodology and implications for developing educational programs in the future.

Worker Training in Job Safety and Health: how do we know it Works?

Two methods of occupational disease and injury prevention specifically required by Federal law are education and training of workers in job safety and health. Basic assumptions underlying these strategies are that they will increase safe behavior thereby reducing health risk. However, questions continue to arise regarding the effect of ongoing training as a preventive measure and, therefore, about the practical usefulness of these assumptions. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which evaluations of ongoing training programs can provide information to test the basic assumptions. A self-administered mail survey concerning the evaluation practices of occupational health professionals responsible for the evaluation of health and safety training programs was conducted. Results suggest that for many evaluations the information collected is inappropriate for the uses to which it is put. Furthermore, the results also suggest that measurement validity is a problem. Thus, in effect, we have no way of knowing whether or not the majority of training programs are effective.