Characteristics of construction safety trainers, the challenges they experience, how they meet these challenges, and the relationships between selected characteristics of safety trainers and accident rates experienced by their trainees

This study was an examination of the safety trainers who work in large construction firms in the United States. It was conducted in the hopes of helping vocational educators improve construction safety training. The purpose of the study was to determine the (1) specific individual demographic characteristics of safety trainers, (2) challenges they experience when planning, delivering, and evaluating safety training programs, (3) relationships between selected individual demographic characteristics of safety trainers and the accident rates of their trainees, and (4) how safety trainers meet the challenges they experience. Most trainers in this study were white males with more than 20 years of construction experience. Approximately 57 percent of the safety trainers had earned a bachelor's degree or higher. Only five safety trainers had degrees in education. Safety trainers believed that they received more support from corporate management than they received from general management, such as project managers, engineers, and superintendents. This belief was found to be significant at the . 01 level using a t-test. Additionally, safety trainers believed that they were better at planning and delivering safety training than they were at evaluating safety training. This belief also was found to be significant (p < . 05) using a t-test. Six null hypotheses were developed to investigate the relationships between selected individual demographic characteristics of safety trainers and the accident rates of trainees. Among the findings for these hypotheses, the following was determined: (1) As company size increased, the accident rates of trainees decreased (r = −. 328, p = . 012). (2) As the educational levels of safety trainers increased, the accident rates of trainees decreased (r = −. 440, p = . 001). (3) There was no statistically significant relationship between the yearly amount of safety training that safety trainers received and the accident rates of their trainees (r = −. 030, p = . 826). (4) There was no statistically significant relationship between the number of years of construction experience that safety trainers have and the accident rates of their trainees ( r = . 054, p = . 690). (5) There was no statistically significant relationship between the number of years of safety experience that safety trainers have and the accident rates of their trainees ( r = . 122, p = . 363). (6) There was no statistically significant relationship between the number of years safety trainers have delivered safety training and the accident rates of their trainees ( r = . 146, p = . 274). Safety trainers met the challenges of not receiving as much support from project managers, engineers, and superintendents as they received from corporate managers by making deliberate efforts to solicit buy-in from these individuals. Additionally, safety trainers met the challenges of not believing they were as good at evaluating safety training as they believed they were at planning and delivering safety training by receiving additional training in the area of evaluation. The study also discussed the conclusions and recommendations of the study. The study ended with a call for vocational educators to become more involved in the training of construction safety trainers.