A New Constructive Professional Training Guide on Health and Safety Practices for Construction Workers

Abstract

Healthy work environments and processes lower the possibility of workplace accidents, financial costs and unnecessary project delays, all of which have a significant beneficial effect on worker morale. The construction sector of many developing countries understands the necessity for effective tools to guide construction workers in improving their work practices linked to health and safety aspects. Accordingly, this study intends to design a modern training guide/manual that could enable construction workers in a variety of job categories to enhance their work procedures, learning demands and responsibilities in relation to health and safety practices. The crucial factors/areas and Competency Elements (CEs) were qualitatively identified using comprehensive approaches. A series of industry consultation meetings/discussions were carried out with actionoriented communication approaches to develop training aims and learning outcomes based on the identified critical CEs. Expert reviews were conducted on the entire development process to validate the outputs. The study has produced a new training guide/manual that describes all the needed components of training to improve the cognitive and manual skills of construction workers, connecting with the key areas of the job roles and the legal framework, identification/assessment/control of hazards, conditions and risks in construction operations. The study has also produced a sample lesson plan which describes how the learning areas/contents are methodically linked to training objectives. The outcomes of experts’ reviews assured the validity, reliability and generalisability of the developed training guide. The developed training manual/guide will be a functional tool that offers proactive and sustainable strategies to successfully integrate contemporary techniques/systems in construction projects, leading to standardising and reforming healthy practices associated with safety, quality and productivity. Despite the study findings can be directly applicable to the construction industry sector of Sri Lanka, other developing/developed countries and other developing industries/sectors can also achieve comparable outcomes towards upgrading their industrial processes.