Planning an Occupational Health and Safety Assignment: A Guide for Students

Step One: Consider your goals and purpose for the assignment

Part 1: Planning the Assignment Step One: Begin by considering what you wish to get out of this assignment. Each student is different, and there’s room with this assignment for you to make it useful for you, at the same time as fulfilling the course work requirements. Here are some questions and ideas to help you formulate your goals and purpose of this assignment: Or, on the other hand, are you new to the OH&S field, and wish to ask some basic questions about the types of positions available, and the responsibilities and activities of people working in a range of OH&S positions? Are you hoping to meet some OH&S practitioners and start to get to know more about the field?Try to sum up in a few sentences what your personal goal is with this assignment. What do you want to learn from this assignment? This “purpose statement” will help you plan the assignment, and must be included in some form in the introduction to your paper. Step Two: Draw up a short list of who you would like to interview for this assignment. You may not know any names yet, but consider the type of OH&S positions you’re interested in finding out about, and the types of workplaces. Here are just a few ideas: An OH&S inspector or officer with a regulatory body like WorkSafeBC, Alberta OH&S, Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, or a similar regulatory body Please do not use your current or, a recent employer or, a first aid attendant for your interviews. We want you to take the opportunity to look beyond the workplaces you’re already familiar with or that you may already have some history with. You will get more out of this assignment, and you will not find yourself in the awkward position of struggling to be objective as you carry out the interviews and write up the report. Please contact your tutor if you have any questions at all about selecting an interviewee for this assignment. If there are OH&S practitioners' organizations in your area, like the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE), or occupational hygiene organizations like the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), attending a meeting will probably allow you to meet people and make connections. You may find you simply have to make some "cold calls" to workplaces or organizations to find someone to interview. Step Three: Select and describe three topic areas or themes that you wish to analyze. In Part 1 of your assignment you will select three topic areas (themes) and describe them. What do you want to learn from your interviewees? A list of possible topic areas are: Safety culture Management approaches Education vs. experience In Part 2 of your assignment, you will discuss what you have learned about these three topic areas and compare and contrast the answers from your interviewees. Step Four: Plan your interview questions. You should plan to ask the same or very comparable questions of both individuals, so you’ll have a basis for comparison of the answers. It is suggested that once you define your three topics for this assignment you design specific questions for each area. You want to be sure to design a list of questions that will give you two well rounded and useful interviews. Start with an "ice breaker" question or two to get the interview started and then ask your questions related to your topic areas. Use open-ended questions that will invite your interview subjects to open up and give you thoughtful, considered answers. Be ready to follow up a few of the questions with “Can you give me an example of that?” or “Why do you think that?” or other invitations for a more in-depth answer. Each interview should last between a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of an hour, so 10 to 12 questions overall (three to four questions per topic area) should be plenty. Step Five: Write the Part 1 report. Your report should include the following: Explanation of your goal and purpose of the assignment in your introduction Description of your two safety practitioners, and why you selected them to interview for this assignment Description of your three topic areas (themes) that you plan to analyze Your interview questions Your paper must have a title page that includes your name, student number, course name/number, instructor name, and your contact information. Your paper must be submitted int he Assignments folder in the Learning Hub and should be approximately (four pages double spaced). Be sure to review the marking criteria sheet to ensure you have all of the information needed for this part of the assignment.