Day Two: Workplace Safety Education -- Questions for Presenters

Dear Colleagues:

First of all, I am still pouring over the PowerPoint.  As Mike mentioned, we can email it to you.  And, as always, any and all questions are welcome.  My first one is for both the community members and Annette.

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Regarding Annette's Presentation

For those who couldn't attend the Workplace Safety Education webinar, I want to call your attention to the Susan Harwood Grant Products, over 300 training material packages (guides, ppts, handouts, tests).  Materials developed under the grant are made available on the OSHA website:  https://www.osha.gov/dte/grant_materials/material_listing_topic.html

A few that caught my eye right away included training on the "chain of infection" and infection control, a really neat set on homecare work (including a lesson on mapping risks in the home), a guide for front-line worker advocates, school workers safety, young workers safety, many with specific English language instruction...  Take a look at just one that catches your eye.  How could you use it in your program?

A QUESTION FOR ANNETTE:  Is there any problem with adult educators using the materials in their classes?  They look very usable but the homepage mentions being health and safety professionals.

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Mike, would you also post this to the Skilled Immigrant and Refugee Workgroup?  I don't seem to be able to do that.

Cynthia Zafft

Health Literacy Moderator

Comments

Dear Colleagues:

Our presenter, Emily Doherty works as Senior Director of the Careers in Manufacturing Programs for the Jane Addams Resource Corporation.  I have a question for Emily and our community members.

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Regarding Emily's presentation

Emily, one of the programs that caught my eye was the Manufacturing Bridge Program.  With the change in the legislation that covers federally funded adult education, I know there are adult education programs around the country that are looking at contextualized instruction and integrated education and training.

A QUESTION FOR EMILY:  Would you describe the bridge program a little more?  Who teaches in the program (how basic skill development is addressed); what the class schedule is like; topics (is this where students take the OSHA 10- or 30-Hour Orientation?); and what is the connection to employers? 

A QUESTION FOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS:  It seems like the 10-Hour General Industry training would fit most programs.  Do you use an OSHA Orientation Training?  How do you address workplace safety?

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Cynthia

JARC's Bridge Program offers 12 weeks of contextualized math and reading instruction. Students are at a 5th-8th grade level (on the TABE) in math and/or reading. All instruction is contextualized to manufacturing.

Our Bridge is team taught. We have one instructor who teaches math for two hours (four days a week), and then a reading instructor who comes in and teaches two additional hours. Students focus on shop math (decimals, fractions, percents, and measurement) and reading relevant materials (articles on manufacturing, employee handbooks, safety material). Employers review and provide feedback on our curricula. JARC's Bridge offers the OSHA 10-Hour for General Industry through Career Safe in the program.

Thanks, Emily, very helpful.  You mentioned in the webinar that many of your students have been formerly incarcerated.  Is that across the board for all the manufacturing programs or for specific programs.  And, how do you build employer partnerships that help facilitate transition to work for students with a record?

Cynthia

47% of our trainees are ex-offenders across all of our training programs. When broken apart, we see the highest percentage of ex-offenders in our Welding training programs. That programs has close to 70% of students who are ex-offenders.

Fortunately, manufacturing is a sector that is very open to hiring ex-offenders. This is partially because they have a skills gap and therefore have a great shortage of skilled workers in which to hire. Our Job Developers build relationships with employers and emphasis the skills that our students are gaining in our training programs. Because employers have such a need for skilled workers, they are more open to hiring ex-offenders if they have good entry level technical skills.

Hi Emily:

Thank you for the additional information.  Would you say a bit more about your Job Developer?  What skills do they need to have?  And, of course, the perennial adult education question, how is that position funded?  Might we expect that the Workforce Development/Dept of Labor side of our collaborations know more about this area?

Cynthia Z.

I love the idea of the industry training program.  I am new to the community college where I work.  Up to this point, I have not been introduced to nor have I participated in any workplace safety training.  I will inquire about this to ensure I have not missed something that I should have received. 

Erica

Dear Colleagues:

Cynthia Peters, Editor of the Change Agent, presented a lesson plan on workplace safety (scroll down to Lesson 4).  For those unable to attend the webinar, here is a description of the lesson plan:  This lesson is designed to increase reading, math, and presentation skills in the context of materials that explain health and safety laws as well as specific practices that workers – particularly those in environmental services or housekeeping – can use to stay safe on the job. Since one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it, this lesson plan includes the opportunity for students to teach what they have learned.

The lesson identifies the CCR standards and is leveled and I love the student investigations and presentations ideas.

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A QUESTION FOR CYNTHIA P.:  You mentioned that health and safety materials sometimes look pretty daunting.  In the webinar, you mentioned taking time to focus on smaller sections.  Would you say a bit more about how you handle technical vocabulary?

A question for the community members:  What strategies do you use with technical vocabulary, especially terms that would be important to students/workers to know over the long haul?

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Cynthia Z.

Yes, it actually can be fun to work on complex technical terms. For one thing, you may uncover student expertise in unexpected places -- which is always a good thing. Someone who may have beginning level grammar skills may know exactly what an MSDS sheet is or what "personal protective equipment" is. So, as a teacher, you may have the opportunity to elevate existing student knowledge. Then you can add to that knowledge by breaking down the terms, teaching different versions of the words (protect, protection, protective, etc.), and having students use the terms in various ways in sentences. A great strategy is to develop questions about the terms and then go find the answers. For example, What "personal protective equipment" do I use on the job? Are there MSDS sheets I should be aware of? They might then go to their supervisor or co-workers and ask questions about these items, and they could bring back the answers to the classroom.

If you could get a hold of a relevant MSDS sheet, that could be a great experience in the classroom. Students could have the chance to look at a hard document. There are so many hard documents in life, and mostly we [all!] try to avoid them. But you could look at the document with students in a way that provides support and humor. You can model not knowing the words yourself (because in fact you probably won't) but showing how you can look things up or get the basic gist or ask questions about pieces.

If you do decide to look at an MSDS sheet, don't start at the beginning and try to go through the whole thing. Instead, practice skimming and noticing the structure of the document. Ask: What do you notice about this document? Let the answers be things like: It has a title. It's broken into sections. It is all about one product. It has a lot of scientific words. Etc.

Then ask students to circle what they think might be key parts. Identify and explain key words. Decide which sections are most relevant and tackle them. For example, would students prefer to focus on the chemical composition section or on the "Precautions and Safe Handling" section?

One thing you are modeling is that this very hard document can be broken down into component parts. Some parts are more important than others. You don't have to understand everything to still get the most important parts. You can be confronted by a document that looks impossible and discover that it's not totally impossible to decipher.

I found the information in the packet extremely relevant to what I am teaching my students.  The other lessons on the site are also very good. I am planning to use some of them as well.  However, the work safety materials will be taught first.

When teaching technical vocabulary, I tend to use a great deal of scenarios.  My students do well with this vocabulary when we put the terminology in context. 

Hi Annette:

I was wondering what your suggestions might be for an adult education center that wanted to arrange for an Outreach Training Program training.  From the map of centers, I noticed that the closest center to me (here in Boston), is the New England OSHA Center at Keene State in New Hampshire.  Would I talk with them about locating a trainer in my area?  If my adult education program is small, would I need to partner with another program or group to make a course feasible?  And, the same kind of question for those in states with centers that aren't nearby.  Does each center cover a geographical area?

Cynthia Z.
 

 

The 40 OTI Education Centers are located throughout the United States.  They are responsible for one of the 10 OSHA Regions in which they are located.  So to use your example of Keene State College.  They are located in Region 1, so they conduct training throughout the Region, not just at their college located in New Hampshire.  If an organization is trying to locate an authorized Outreach trainer, they may contact the OTI Education Center in their Region for assistance. 

As to your question regarding whether an organization would need to partner with another program to make a course feasible.  That would be a decision that an organization would need to make in regards to their ability to fund a class.  The authorized Outreach trainers do not work for OSHA so they set their own fees. Also, many of the OTI Education Centers have authorized Outreach trainers on their staff and will contract with an organization to conduct a class.  The educational institution may also want to look at online training one of our authorized online providers.  In particular, Career Safe's program is specific to youth.

 

Thanks, Annette, very helpful!  The Career Safe option might be interesting for young adults.  It would also give them an online learning experience.  I notice that they have a page on funding, that includes an appeal letter template for sponsorship (cost seems to be $25 per student for the 10-hr program).  The statistics on youth and injury on the job are pretty startling:  The injury rate for workers ages 16-24 is twice that of the general population.

Cynthia Z.