Building Competence in Risk Management of Future HSE Professionals Erasmus Project

Project Title

Building Competence in Risk Management of Future HSE Professionals

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cooperation between educational institutions and business; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

HSE professionals (or Safety professionals) need to have relevant and high-quality competences across wide range of disciplines such as occupational safety, process safety, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, environmental protection and very often crisis and emergency management as well. They face known and new risks and have to come up with effective and innovative solutions to handle them. Competence in HSE risk management is crucial. Application of recent research results in the domain of risk management enables to develop demanded competences and to overcome today’s gap when health, safety and environment are not fully integrated. Competences in HSE risk management, including analytical and critical thinking, flexibility, evidence-based decision making in the face of uncertainty and complexity, acting within multidisciplinarity and intercultural context, require innovative ways of teaching and training. University-level education is currently being widely understood as a prerequisite for HSE profession.
The main project objective was to develop relevant and high-quality competences of university students (future HSE professionals) in the area of risk management through transnational cooperation among universities, insurance institutions, enterprises and other key stakeholders active in the field of education and training. The project aimed to support the university teachers in interactive and cooperative learning as well.
Students’ competencies were developed using innovative methods and tools. The project was built on modern approaches in education, such as collaborative learning, project/problem-based learning and experiential learning. Gamification and the use of virtual reality played an important role. The focus was on minimizing lecture-style teaching and on promotion of collaborative atmosphere of attention and participation. Brainstorming, mind-mapping, discussions with professionals, working on case studies and project methods were used for education and training in HSE risk management. The methods were supported by tailor-made teaching tools including case studies and good practices from companies, safety games, virtual games and training. The innovation was achieved with the use of digital technologies and new media.
The project targeted mainly on university students of study programmes related to HSE / Safety & Security (i.e. future HSE professionals and specialists) and their teachers. Beginning HSE professionals and their trainers were addressed as well, as they may use the project outputs for education and training purposes.
The project resulted in the following intellectual outputs:
O1 Toolkit: Kit of innovative teaching methods and tools for modern, more effective, interactive teaching of HSE risk management with the use of digital technologies.
O2 Course: New voluntary course on HSE risk management developed on the Google Classroom blended learning platform.
O3 Trainee program: Industry trainee program module on HSE risk management developed in cooperation with the STANT Manufacturing company.
The intellectual outputs were supported by training activities – two summer schools for university students and one course for teachers.
Almost 40 students and more than 20 lecturers/trainers were directly involved in the training activities. More than 60 students and almost 10 university teachers participated in the testing of intellectual outputs (O1, O2 and O3).
Multiplier events, when RiskMan project went to the public, were limited due to COVID situation to one workshop on interactive teaching and training in HSE, which took place on 25th September 2019 in Vienna, Austria as part of the WOS conference. Many presentation and publication activities were conducted in cooperation with the ENETOSH, PEROSH and Bilbao Agency (EU-OSHA) networks to support the dissemination of the project results to wider professional public. It is estimated that around 150 professionals were reached by the dissemination activities.
The project has supported interaction in university-level education and training of future HSE professionals. RiskMan approach contributes to EU initiatives addressing attractiveness of learning process for student and enhancement of the quality in education.
Wider impact and benefits are seen in enhancing student´s professional competence in the area of HSE risk management and teacher´s competence in interactive teaching. Partner universities have increased quality and attractiveness of their education and training. The materials produced in the project will be used in teaching at universities, but also at workshops for adults in the Framework of the lifelong learning.
The project laid the foundations for a follow-up project, which was prepared by the project consortium and is being currently solved (see the OshDigit project).

Project Website

https://riskman.vsb.cz/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 218191 Eur

Project Coordinator

VYSOKÁ ŠKOLA BÁŇSKÁ – TECHNICKÁ UNIVERZITA OSTRAVA & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt
• UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO