Portail de formation en santé et sécurité au travail
Title translated into English
Occupational safety and health (OSH) training portal
Product submission URL (http:// or https://)
Product description
To support continuing training and knowledge transfer in occupational health and safety (OHS), the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) wanted to complement ist classroom training program with an easy and effective way to reach the approximately 3,000 union OHS representatives in workplaces represented by the CSN. The OHS training portal was created for this purpose. The French-language site is freely available to all, at no charge. It is based on an independent learning model informed by adult education principles. The portal combines easy navigation and user-friendly design with compelling educational content. From the homepage, newly appointed union OHS representatives are invited to follow a six-stage training path. The first five provide information on the OHS rep’s role, the application of OHS in the workplace, prevention, problem-solving and getting results. A structured prevention effort is encouraged throughout. The sixth stage includes practical exercises in which users are asked to resolve complex, problematic OHS-related situations in a context that reflects their workplace as closely as possible. Each stage ends with a review that can be printed out and kept as a reminder. An interactive guided tour of the site is available from the homepage. Some 40 background information pages covering most aspects of OHS can also be accessed from the homepage. OHS reps can use them to enrich the learning process or as a reference when they need specific information. The backgrounders are divided into four categories: getting organized, risks, prevention and OHS regulations. The information is presented in a simple, accessible form and is enhanced by images, interactive tests, punchy animations, excerpts from video interviews with experts in the field, and suggestions for further reading. Each backgrounder is also accompanied by a handy fact sheet in PDF format that users can keep for future reference. The portal also includes a glossary with nearly a hundred OHS-related entries. The Tools section, a goldmine of OHS resources, provides forms, inspection sheets, investigation questionnaires, fact sheets, checklists, management tool templates and follow-up tools (action plans, registers, reports), samples and more. The Activities section lists all the activities (mainly interactive tests) available on the portal so that users can easily go back to them whenever they wish and redo them and/or use them as discussion aids with colleagues, union executives, and workers. Finally, the Links section lists vital websites for union OHS reps. In short, the OHS training portal offers union OHS representatives a direct route to a variety of online training and information tools, complementary resources and follow-up tools. Designed with the user in mind, the portal provides simple, dynamic training materials, fast and effective online learning supports and appropriate, consistent multimedia aids that respect principles of Web ergonomics.
Aims and objectives
The key message of the occupational safety and health (OSH) training portal is without a doubt focused on the importance of prevention and intervention in facilitating the elimination or management of risks in organizations, and on the adoption of safe behavior. This message is presented within the union context of our target group. How can you, as union OSH representative, influence your workplace to pay attention to health and safety? To this end, a process of intervention and prevention is presented, and topics related to most areas of OSH intervention were developed. These topics are grouped into four categories: getting organized, risks, prevention and OSH regulations. The OSH training portal aims to support the training of OSH representatives by CSN, by offering them a range of internet-accessible resources to support their preventive actions. The accessibility of the portal helps to promote the widest dissemination of OSH knowledge possible. More specifically, the portal aims to: • make available to the stakeholders content for OSH training, which is complementary to what is offered in the class room, including OSH risks and prevention measures; • promote the transfer and integration of learnings accomplished during OSH training sessions; • distribute additional and up-to-date resources to the OSH representatives for most areas of OSH intervention; • provide tools for monitoring safety and health to the stakeholders, such as forms, inspection sheets, etc. To achieve these objectives, the portal makes use of the possibilities of multimedia in order to provide the union OSH representatives with a wide range of information, learning activities, resources, tools to educate workers about the risks associated with their workplace and the use of various measures, preventive actions and safe work practices.
The production of this OSH training portal, accessible via http://formationsst.csn.qc.ca/, was necessary to promote the transfer and integration of learnings accomplished by the stakeholders during the classroom training sessions, and to give them effective and easy access to intervention tools. The use of an open medium, accessible to all, aims at providing the same support and the same quality of service to all union OSH representatives, whether located in remote areas or in large centers, for union members with little or greater financial means and for whatever time they can make available for training. Following a needs analysis, the internet and countless multimedia possibilities proved most suitable to reach the target group wherever they are, 24/7 and at the lowest possible cost for the users (that is to say, free). In addition, the decision to make this content accessible to all has imposed itself due to the importance of OSH training and the high turnover of the stakeholders. The portal, to which content has been added on a regular basis since 2011, achieved its objectives in particular due to its user-friendly design, its easy navigation, its extensive content and its pedagogical qualities. To realize this portal, CSN collaborates with a team of TÉLUQ - a university completely devoted to learning from a distance, which is part of the network of the University of Quebec - consisting of specialists in the design and production of multimedia products for pedagogical purposes. These specialists in on-line learning and learning from a distance pay particular attention to the principles of adult education (andragogy), writing and web ergonomics. Combining informative texts, various graphic elements, diagnostic tools, tests and interactive exercises, audio commentaries, dynamic animations and video clips of interviews with OSH experts, multimedia allows us to offer an innovative OSH product which is able to motivate its users, captivate and keep their attention, promote their learning (and its transfer to the field) and encourage them to constantly update their knowledge so that the real impact of prevention can be felt in the workplace.
Target audience
The target group consists of the facilitators and stakeholders in safety and health (OSH) of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), the largest trade union federation in Quebec. The 3,000 OSH representatives are a particularly he
Contact details Editor
Confédération des syndicats nationaux – CSN
Avenue De Lorimier1601, Canada-H2K 4M5 Montréal (Québec)
+15145982259+15145982052 judith.carroll@csn.qc.ca
Contact details Production company
TÉLUQ
Du Parvis455 - a/s Madame Elena Laroche , Canada-G1K 9H6 Québec (Québec)
+14186572262+14186572094 elaroche@teluq.uquebec.ca
http://www.teluq.ca