Development and Validation of Career Development Guidelines by Task/Activity Analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Professions: Industrial Hygiene and Safety Professional

摘要

A curriculum was developed for the education and training of personnel entering into the field of occupational health and safety. Data was collected from two major sources, a select group of 30 expert practitioners and a randomly selected group of 848 incumbents, and supplementary information secured from published literature, job descriptions from state and local governments, and job descriptions from industry. Specifically, the occupations of interest were in the Industrial Hygiene and Professional categories; Technician, In Training, Professional, and Administrator. The data was treated statistically to determine if a task/activity was performed or not performed. Performance objectives were developed for each task/activity. The task/activity and performance objectives were assigned to academic levels; Associate, Baccalaureate, or Graduate. Prerequisite knowledge was determined for each task/activity. Courses were developed that were composed of groups of related tasks/activities and performance objectives. Finally, curricula were developed for the Associate and the Baccalaureate level. In addition, recommendations were made for an occupational health and safety generalist curriculum and suggested tasks/activities for graduate level instruction were indicated. The criteria developed during this project have application in revising old or establishing new curricula, as guidelines for accreditation and certification, and in evaluating continuing education courses.