Taking into account the hazards of the workplace for the environment and safety personnel specifically related to welding (fume, radiation, noise, vibration), factors with potential high risk on the health and safety of welders, and also its significant impact on the environment, the necessity of management system implementation and personnel training has a major importance, both for employers and employees. Besides assuring a safe work conditions, the employer must provide information, instruction, training and supervision in the field of health and safety for his workers, and the necessity of the presence of a person in charge having these responsibilities, is mandatory. To obtain the expected results (less accidents, less occupational diseases, clean and safety workplaces, friendly environment) the technical personnel that leads the health, safety and environmental management systems in the company must have an updated knowledge and the necessary expertise to fulfill their tasks. These competencies should be achieved only in the frame of harmonised training courses at European level, which until now does not exist.The HSE Joining project intends to help solve this situation by developing a harmonised curriculum for training in joining, adjusted to the market (employment) needs and requirements, allowing a perfect match between the market demand, the job seek and the VET offer.As so, HSE Joining will develop 4 Intellectual Outputs that will include the Curriculum and the support materials for the implementation in the training courses: IO1 - Harmonised Curriculum for HSE implementation in joining IO2 - Educational materials IO3 - Training assessment IO4 - Serious games on HSE In this way the present project aims to address an increasing market need and the existing lack of a harmonised training and qualification in the field of HSE Training in Joining Technologies; to create an European Curriculum to harmonise and improve the quality of the training and qualification of personnel in this field, recognised at European level, having as a direct result the relevance of qualification in the labour market in the HSE Training in Joining Technologies; to develop Educational Materials, Training Assessment Database and a Serious Game using ICT, making the training more appealing for both trainers and trainees and to enhance job opportunities in this field of expertise, where qualified personnel is sparse.A minimum of 48 trainers/trainees will attend/go through the national pilot workshops and 40 stakeholders are expected in the final transnational conference.
The project developed ' ready -to -use ' training and education materials tackling the hazards of a welding workplace in terms of environment and personal safety and health. To make sure that the prepared curriculum and training tools are completely adapted to the market needs and requirements, the project started with a thorough desk and field research by means of a questionnaire sent to VET providers as well as welding companies. The outcome of this field research revealed the 15 important topics to be dealt with , resulting in the 15 chapters of the handbook and made clear that companies and VET providers are asking for relevant and up-to-date training material , for example to use in regularly organized toolbox meetings dedicated to a specific topic. Apart from traditional training and reference tools as a handbook, a powerpoint presentation per topic (IO2)and the necessary assessment tools ( IO3) , the project developed a serious game.(IO4) . The partners discovered however that the level of difficulty had to be split up in : Level 1 : the welders : To guarantee that welders are working according to HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) rules all over the world and as such increasing the mobility of labor in this field . Level 2: Welding coordinators and teachers : develop teaching materials to facilitate and upgrade their training and information sessions. This made the partners decide to develop training material and assessment tools ( IO2 and IO3) for two specific levels , respectively for the welder and a second one , including more background information on international standars and rules , for the coordinator or teacher. As a consequence of the split-up into 2 levels of difficulty , IO 1 reflects 2 EQF (European Qualifications Framework) levels within 1 curriculum . The serious game is set up as a multi-purpose tool :it can be used as a stand-alone prevention and training tool are before or even after a training session .