Despite the large sums spent for fostering the use of risk prevention methods, there are some sectors where the results are still very scarce and the number and importance of accidents is very high. This is the case with the natural stone placement in the construction world, where, in spite of conducting continual training campaigns, the rates of accidents and professional diseases is still very high in most European countries. The characteristics of the materials, stone pieces, and the frequently negative work conditions such as bad climate or working in height, together with the lack or low awareness of the need of following the safety procedures, makes the risk of accidents to be very high during the placement process. Frequently we are dealing with products which weight and dimensions are beyond the ability of people: ashlars, columns, slabs, etc. In countries with the presence of snow like Germany, workers have to deal with freezing temperatures and the risk of splitting in the ice. It makes that a small mistake can give rise to an accident. If we add the risk due to working at high, we can understand why there are still a big number of serious accidents. It makes that a small mistake can give rise to an accident. If we add the risk due to working at high, we can understand why there are still a big number of serious accidents. Traditionally, construction is an industry that receives people coming from other sectors when they get unemployed or just people without any skill that cannot access other economic sector considered more attractive. It makes that traditionally a relevant part of the workers are immigrants or other disadvantaged groups. Currently, together with these groups of people, stone industry must contribute to the social and labour inclusion of the number of refugees arriving to Germany and the other EU countries, without any previous knowledge regarding stone industry. Traditional courses and learning materials are not at all suitable to meeting the needs of these groups of workers. It means that in most cases the workers just “learn by doing”, which for a risky sector as stone industry, brings an important number of accidents and professional diseases. They just follow in some countries a simple Risk prevention course, which is considered as just a requirement for entering the job, not giving a real knowledge about all individual and collective protection equipment to be used, as well as regarding the methods and procedures for performing their work according to the safety regulations and principals. This really enormously increases the risk of accidents, even more than the working condition or the characteristics of the stone. Regarding the risks for professional illnesses the situation is similar, resulting in frequent problems, mainly due to the stone dust and to the way of handling weights, what is not only a problem for the worker, but also to the companies. The risks that every worker bears during the natural stone placement are the same in all countries, and the lack of education and training in most of workers is also share by the stone industry throughout Europe. That’s why there is a need to unify criteria and take advantage of synergies between European countries organizations to better train workers in the use of the risk prevention methods. In this situation, shared by most European countries, consortium has decided to develop a tool to foster the acquisition of the required skills and competences in the stone placing industry specially adapted to the needs of refugees and other low skilled groups of workers. OBJECTIVES The main aim of the project is the creation of a totally innovative training tool in 3D adapted to the real needs and characteristics of stone placing industry workers across Europe, particularly for the refugees, immigrants and other disfavoured groups, which are an important part of current and future workforce in this industry. It will allow different agents from the natural stone sector (professional associations, unions, administration) to achieve the desired impact in the numerous courses distributed within the European Union related to health and safety in stone industry. PRODUCTS The main products that will be developed within the project are the following: a) A report on the main situations of risk in natural stone companies in the participating countries. b) A 3D multimedia training tool including a total of 10 animations of 120 seconds each of them. It should be noted that although this project will be focus in the risks related to the placement of natural stone products, the knowledge of the required procedures to place this products can be applied also to the placement of other building materials. Furthermore, the general safety rules animations representing along the tool must be applied also when placing other construction materials, what gives the project a transversal and complementary value.
This project was aimed primarily at Continuous Vocational Education and Training (C-VET), contributing to facilitate the acquisition of the basic level of competences in safety in stone placing and, at the same time, promoting on the workers of stone sector to change their behaviour regarding the following of the safety regulations. It is particular important for immigrants and refugees, which are currently the biggest number of employees in this sector in the EU developed countries. For them is particularly important to count with a multimedia material that facilitate the learning when the language skills are low . But the results are also extremely useful for students in Initial Vocational Education and Training, where the general behaviour is still against a wide use of the safety equipment and procedures, what finally results in a high level of labour accidents and professional illnesses. For achieving the allocated aim, consortium produced a Multimedia Resource Centre (MRC), to make available a multimedia and easy-to-use material to train stone placing workers. This MRC includes 10 animations developed in 3D, related to the main safety risk of the sector, and include not only the information on how to perform the different tasks with safety and using the safety equipment, but also shows those wrong methods used by the workers in the sector and somehow try to ridicule this mentality and show the risks this behaviour brings. For the purpose of developing the MRC with the proper content, consortium carried on an initial field research. The field research was carried out in all involved countries and it has a double purpose. Firstly consortium tried to highlight which were the main risks in the stone placing activities, both in terms of frequency and in terms of importance. Based on the results, consortium have produced a table with the most relevant risks and then structured them in 10 groups. The second purpose of the research is to highlight which are the most common wrong procedures used in the stone placing companies. This was made by holding discussions with responsible staff for security in the companies. These results have been used to represent those most common risk situations produced due to wrong working procedures. The field research was completed with a compilation of the normative related to security and healthy risks in the natural stone placing in the different countries, as well as the EU normative for those particular works where the normative is common in European Union. Both researchers were carried out. Before carrying out the research consortium considered important to structure the stone placing works in groups, in order to easier making possible their study. The structured works were the bases for the performance of the research and the production of the report. These works then were gathered in 5 groups and each partner coordinate the research for a particular group of risks. Once both researches were carried out, the reports produced with the results were discussed in a general consortium meeting. Then, consortium started the production of the content for the animations. Before starting the production of the scripts consortium have carry out a distributions of the risks among the different stone placing works to be represented. Frequently, we can find the same risk in different type of works. i.e. the need of using the harness and life-line is common to all works in high. Then, partner CTM was in charge of developing a table with a proposal for those risks that would be included in any type of work, which was widely discussed in the second meeting in Italy and approved after some changes. Based on the previous researches, partners develop first the storyboard and storyline and then the animations, based in the following schedule: -Definition of the characters. They must represent and promote the principals of European Commissions in terms of gender equality and intercultural relations: a female representing a young women from centre Africa, a male coming from North Africa or Middle East country, a male coming from an Eastern European country and a German woman, which would be the forewomen of the company-Definition of the backgrounds to use, in order to get the required homogeneity: a big building and a cemetery, in order to represent the tombs and other stone works related to grave art, which is an important sector in North and Central Europe.-Develop a basic script by partners. -Improvement of script by an expert in communication, in order to improve its communication capacity and to be more attractive for the user. -Develop the storyline and storyline by IT expert, being continuously revised by consortium partners. -Production of the 3D animations including sound. Also continuously revised by partners. -Testing of the animations in different countries and implementing proposed changes. -Production of the Web Platform.