Comparative study of university courses on construction safety at undergraduate level

Zia Din, Rahimi A. Rahman, Edd Gibson

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Worker safety is a critical success factor in today's construction projects. Workplace safety plays an important role in the on-time delivery of projects, and it also translates into whether the project participants will earn a profit on investment. More often than not, the majority of today's construction projects encounter events that compromise workers' safety. A key to creating and maintaining a safe workplace is providing effective safety education or training to workers including to those who are responsible for making decisions on a project such as safety managers, construction managers, and supervisors. Despite the emphasis on safety education of workers, safety performance in the construction industry is far from satisfactory. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the content of the safety courses to evaluate their relevance to the major safety challenges faced by the construction industry. In determining what recommendations might be reasonable in establishing construction safety course contents, one area to be examined is what construction safety content is being taught in universities. In this examination, the authors approached the question in two ways. First, they analyze construction safety syllabi from universities in the United States. Second, they set the baseline using the most frequently cited serious violations data over the period of five years as well as Focus Four hazards in construction. Then the content of the safety courses was compared with baseline data. While examining construction safety courses offered at the undergraduate level in construction programs, we found that the contents of the courses were inconsistent. In light of these differences, a growing need has emerged for guidelines for construction safety education, a common foundation from which construction safety education syllabi is enriched. Data obtained from the study provided a basis for recommendations to academia about potential changes which would bridge the gap between construction education and construction safety challenges.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages350-359
Number of pages10
StatePublished - Jan 1 2017
Event6th CSCE-CRC International Construction Specialty Conference 2017 - Held as Part of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering Annual Conference and General Meeting 2017 - Vancouver, Canada
Duration: May 31 2017Jun 3 2017

Conference

Conference6th CSCE-CRC International Construction Specialty Conference 2017 - Held as Part of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering Annual Conference and General Meeting 2017
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver
Period5/31/176/3/17

Keywords

  • Focus four.
  • Most frequently cited serious violations.
  • Safety education

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Building and Construction

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