An assessment of safety/risk management practices/perspectives among high school/middle school technology education instructors and business/industry professionals

Abstract

While school shop safety is probably a major concern of teachers and parents, it would seem that employers also are concerned that new employees are prepared to perform the jobs for which they were hired. This study looks into how safety/risk management is taught in technology education classes and how applicable these lessons are to prospective employers. The goals of this study were to identify the extent of safety/risk management instruction that current technology education teachers have received and also provide in their classrooms. Another goal of this study was to identify employers' perceptions of recently graduated students' safety risk management knowledge and abilities. Data regarding teachers' training in and teaching of safety/risk management was collected using a survey distributed to technology education teachers attending the Technology Education Conference at University of Wisconsin-Stout on October 14, 2005. Data regarding employers' perceptions of newly hired employees' safety/risk management training was collected by surveys mailed to members of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce, based in Appleton, WI. Data collected indicated that technology education teachers received their safety/risk management training from a variety of sources, many of which were informal. The data did not identify any clear consistencies between what is being taught in schools and what training is desired by industry. The training required varied wildly between different industrial respondents. No clear pattern of what was required or desired emerged from this study.