TY - JOUR
T1 - Quality assessment of postgraduate safety education programs, current developments with examples of ten (post)graduate safety courses in Europe
AU - Swuste, Paul
AU - Galera, Asun
AU - Van Wassenhove, Wim
AU - Carretero-Gómez, José
AU - Arezes, Pedro
AU - Kivistö-Rahnasto, Jouni
AU - Forteza, Francisco
AU - Motet, Gilles
AU - Reyniers, Kelly
AU - More Authors, null
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Postgraduate courses
KW - Quality assessment
KW - Safety education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106221900&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105338
DO - 10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105338
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85106221900
SN - 0925-7535
VL - 141
JO - Safety Science
JF - Safety Science
M1 - 105338
ER -