Education, Training and Briefings about Industrial Ergonomics and Occupational Health and Safety - Australia

Dr John F. Culvenor, PhD

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“Changing the way people think about safety”

I believe that there are three messages that can make a difference:

Ø Safety through design including principles of control at source and the history of that model (see Chapter 2 of my PhD for that discussion);

Ø Creativity and problem solving and why this is essential to good safety; and

Ø Why good safety can drive innovation in a business.

Most of the work I do is about changing the way people think about safety. For example the role of an expert witness is to educate the court about matters of ergonomics. The role of a consultant is often to help a business understand its problems and find an effective and productive way to make the business safer.

Short briefings about safety, creativity and innovation

Ten years ago I had the pleasure of training with Edward de Bono. The course was in Toronto in Canada. I used that training in my PhD studies. There are a some published papers in the publications page that cover this topic:

Ø “Effect of Creative Thinking on OHS Committees” published in the Journal of Occupational Health and Safety Australia New Zealand;

Ø “Finding Occupational Injury Solutions: The Impact of Training in Creative Thinking” in Safety Science;

Ø “From Prevention to Innovation” in Corporate Risk; and

Ø “The Use of Creativity Techniques in OHS Risk Management” in Creativity and Innovation Management.

Find these papers in the publications page. I enjoy integrating some of these concepts into briefings about safety.

Workplace health and safety courses

VIOSH Australia at the University of Ballarat are an approved provider of WorkSafe Victoria approved “health and safety representative” training. I sometimes deliver this course on behalf of the University. The course is one of the most innovative. Participants solve a problem in their workplace as part of the course. The standard of problem solving is usually fantastic. I will put some case studies up here when I get a chance!

University teaching:

Through my ongoing relationship with those at the University of Ballarat and La Trobe University I am involved in guest lecturing on undergraduate and graduate programs in occupational hazard management and ergonomics. I give lectures on subjects such as

· Manual Handling.

· Plant Safety and Machine Guarding.

· Ergonomics.

· Risk Management.

· OHS Law.

For industry clients I conduct briefings and training in:

· Statutory compliance.

· Risk control concepts and creativity.

· Risk management.

· Management systems.