The health and safety of all workers remains paramount across Europe. However, certain sectors, such as the construction industry, still lag behind in their implementation of safety procedures, with often fatal consequences. There is a critical need to deliver effective safety training - especially to low-skilled and migrant workers in high risk environments such as the construction industry. Furthermore, there are currently no established frameworks for evaluating the quality and efficacy of safety training.
The primary goal of ESTEEM is to maximise the quality and efficacy of safety training programmes provided in the EU. Taking a multi-national and multi-disciplinary approach, ESTEEM aims to:
Enhance access to training and qualifications for all by shaping its training activities to the needs and competencies of low-skill and migrant workers in the construction industry.
Promote social inclusion by applying design project methodologies which include stakeholders’ needs from the very beginning.
Aid the mobility of workers within the EU by developing a Safety Training Certificate System for trainers and trainees which is transparent and which provides trainees with a certification of skills recognised across the EU.
To fulfil its aims, ESTEEM developed the following outputs:
ESTEEM Safety Training Knowledge Base
The ESTEEM Safety Training Knowledge Base will include existing safety literature and work-related safety regulations, practices, and training programmes from across the EU at organisational, national, and transnational levels, with a focus on safety training activities for low-skilled and immigrant workers within construction. The production of the ESTEEM Safety Training Knowledge Base will arise from the following activities:
Analysis of the existing regulations on safety training, safety training methods and their effectiveness.
A systematic literature review of the state-of-the-art of safety training among low-skilled migrant workers in construction.
Focus groups and interviews with workers, trainers, Occupational Safety and Health practitioners, and supervisors with safety responsibilities.
ESTEEM Safety Training Package
Based on the knowledge from the ESTEEM Safety Training Knowledge Base, the ESTEEM Safety Training Package has been developed, which incorporates in-person training, e-learning, and on-the job exercises.
ESTEEM Interactive Platform for Safety Training
After a period of pilot testing, the Safety Training Package became freely available to any organisation interested in using it, via the ESTEEM Interactive Platform for Safety Training.
ESTEEM Training Evaluation Device
The team developed a series of questionnaires to measure how ESTEEM's safety training was applied in the workplace, identify any barriers to this application and the general outcomes of the training.
ESTEEM Certification
Finally, we have developed a certification system for safety trainer who have been trained in delivering the training and for construction workers who have completed training.
ESTEEM Guidelines
The Guidelines focus specifically on enhancing safety for low-skilled and migrant workers.
All materials and resources associated with these six outputs have been made available for free in multiple languages and media formats, on this website and via the ESTEEM Interactive Platform for Safety Training.
Additionally, members can start discussions, ask questions, and upload links to their own tools, data and materials related to workplace safety on the ESTEEM LinkedIn group and the ESTEEM Facebook group.