Mainstreaming occupational safety and health into university ...

Mainstreaming occupational safety and health into university educationE u r o p e a n Ag e n c y f o r Sa f e t y a n d He a l t h a t Wo r kThe Department of Work Environment and Safety provides a course concerning therisk analysis of major accidents. This specialist course is for qualified civil engineersonly. The course is arranged together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There havebeen two catastrophes in Estonia during the independence period: the sinking of anEstonian ship and the drowning of 17 soldiers. The special course started after thesecatastrophes.In addition, there is co-operation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The main topicof co-operation is regulation of crisis situations. For example, one area of cooperationis management of social risks: violence, psychology, the situation of women.The Department of Work Environment and Safety has awarded most of its Masterof Arts degrees to students from the Faculty of Economics with an interest inergonomics. However, some students have come from the Faculty of Chemistry andthe Faculty of Mechanics, chosing safety as the topic of their diploma work.The department gives some international courses in English on working environmentand safety. Another topic is the economics of occupational safety. In 2006-7 therewere 10 students from other countries: China, Germany, France and Finland. They arerequired to have passed an entry test for the course for the Master of Arts level. Inthe Faculty of Economics there are also courses on economics in Russian for studentswho speak only Russian.Several different teaching methods are used by the Department of WorkingEnvironment and Safety. In addition to lectures, for example, CD-ROMs and films areused. The department has films about noise, the disaster of the oil rig Piper Alpha,and risk assessment, made in England. Some films are also in Finnish.For most courses there is an examination at the end of the course. This guarantees thelevel of learning and the students go through the learning material. For some coursesthe teachers give only an evaluation.Problems facedIt is felt that the importance of OSH is not sufficiently recognised by the authoritiesand that the university hierarchy does not fully appreciate the value of OSH teachingand favours the more technical departments. This contributes to a funding problem,for example, for the purchase of equipment. The department provides some technicalOSH services to companies in order to generate some funding. There is also a lackof teaching materials in Estonian. The teachers of the department have themselvesmade brochures for students. These brochures are based on foreign textbooks.Students increasingly take occupational safety more seriously. They are interested inlaboratories and measures. On the other hand, students are drawn more to subjectswhere they can use computers such as chemistry and gene technology.At present many companies select an existing engineer to be safety manager or givethis additional task to someone from personnel and send them on a course, ratherthan employing safety specialists.100