Quality assessment of postgraduate safety education programs, current developments with examples of ten (post)graduate safety courses in Europe. (September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Swuste, Paul; Galera, Asun; Van Wassenhove, Wim; Carretero-Gómez, José; Arezes, Pedro; Kivistö-Rahnasto, Jouni; Forteza, Francisco; Motet, Gilles; Reyniers, Kelly; Bergmans, Anne; Wenham, David; Van Den Broeke, Carine
• Is Part Of: Safety science. Volume 141(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Subjects: Safety education -- Postgraduate courses -- Quality assessment; Industrial accidents -- Periodicals; Accident Prevention -- Periodicals; Safety -- Periodicals; Travail -- Accidents -- Périodiques; 363.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105338
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0925-7535

Abstract

Highlights: (Post)graduate education of safety experts gains some interest in the international safety literature. Publications on the quality of these programs is almost absent. Main quality indicators are internal, like reactions from trainees, results from examinations. A better indicator is the transfer of safety knowledge and skills to companies and organizations. Abstract: Professionalization of safety is gaining some interest in international safety literature, including (post)graduate training and education of safety experts. Different from research, there are hardly any publications and discussions on the quality of (post) graduate safety education in the academic safety literature. This article starts with a short historical picture of safety education. After this picture, a description of the ten (post) graduate safety courses involved is presented with a special reference to the assessment of the quality of these courses. It shows that an internal evaluation of quality, like reactions from trainees, and results from examinations, and tests are presently the main quality indicators. Discussions on how quality assessment can be performed has led to an overview of literature on educational objectives and educational models, and possible options for this assessment. The article concludes that the transfer of safety knowledge and skills to companies and organizations is a highly desirable elaboration of the quality concept. But it is also clear that traditional safety indicators can provide no, or only unreliable, information about the degree of this transfer. An overview of possible minor and major accident scenarios of the company or organisation concerned might be a better option, combined with the activities of the trainee to influence and prevent activation of these scenarios.