ABSTRACT
Early in the development process, someone asked me what type of book I was writing. I responded, “An objective-based safety training book.” Their response was, “What other type of training is there?” That simple statement was quite profound and really made me step back and think. As safety pro fessionals charged with establishing training programs, there is a general feeling that since we are the “experts,” we can obviously train others on the information. The reality is, most safety professionals are not skilled in pro gram design and do not really have the tools to build an objective-based training system. As they venture out to develop a training program, they fo cus on what to present, normally based on some regulation. As a point of presentation, they may cover all the important issues spelled out in the stan dard. But as the participants are leaving the training class, the question that must be asked is, what is the take away? Is there any comfort level that the participants now have the knowledge and skills necessary to go forward and work in the prescribed manner? In many instances the answer is no.
