ABSTRACT
An increasing awareness of the poor performance of the construction industry with regards to occupational health and safety (OHS) and welfare has focused attention on the importance of health and safety training for construction operatives. OHS training seeks to achieve two objectives. The first is to improve individuals’ awareness, knowledge, attitudes and skills in relation to health and safety and the second is to effect positive behaviour change (Cox and Tait, 1998). Simply put, the aim of training is to alter permanently, the behaviour of employees in a way which will further the achievement of organisational goals, such as improved OHS performance. However, the paths leading from training to improved performance in OHS are neither direct nor automatic (DeJoy, 1994). Vojtecky and Schmitz (1986) highlight the need for the systematic evaluation of training a programme’s effectiveness in bringing about a desired outcome. This evaluation should cover two interrelated outcomes of the training programme:
• how effective was the training approach in delivering the necessary learning? and • how has the training impacted on the performance of the organisation in terms of
achieving its strategic objectives? (Loosemore, et al., 2003).
