Safety training park in Northern Finland : a multistakeholder approach to improve occupational safety and health

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>Accident and injury rates are high in the construction industry, and there are no significant signs of occupational safety and health (OSH) development. The OSH interests, skills, and knowledge of both employees and managers should be improved to gain long-lasting improvements. The Finnish construction industry has introduced a new safety training concept called Safety Training Park (STP) to meet these challenges. STPs consist of real-world training points and use new and innovative safety training methods aimed at stimulating both individual behavior change and quality change in overall conditions that ultimately aim to lead to improved safety performance at both the construction site and organizational levels. The trainings are based on multimodal information sharing and participation with the ultimate aim of provoking discussion on experiences and beliefs among the members of the trainee group. This study focuses on the Safety Training Park in northern Finland (STPNF). STPNF has been designed, constructed, and financed during a collaboration process that includes more than 80 organizations. In order to contribute to the discussion regarding sustainable work reaching from the employee level to the organizational level and beyond, STPNF is discussed both from microergonomic and macroergonomic perspectives.</p></div>