Creating a Safety Culture in Undergraduate Education Symposium

It is widely demonstrated that when an excellent safety culture is developed, dramatically reduced safety incidents and outstanding safety performance result. Most college undergraduates, however, have never been exposed to safety culture.

The Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment, The National Academy of Construction, and Virginia Tech are hosting the first of a second symposia series that will:

• Share safety culture best practices and lessons learned from the first symposia series to better prepare undergraduate students for entering the industry.
• Elevate educators’ knowledge of safety culture and bring it into their existing programs.
• Build networks to connect educators and the industry.

This symposia series can significantly increase safety culture knowledge at the university level and help create and sustain a safety culture across the industry.

In the 2016 National Academies report Beyond Compliance: Strengthening the Safety Culture of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry the committee recommended the adoption of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) definition for safety culture as “the core values and behaviors of all members of an organization that reflect a commitment to conduct business in a manner that protects people and the environment.”  

Many owners and service providers in the construction industry, have made great strides in safety by implementing known safety principles leading to excellent safety records within their organizations. Yet, progress in improving construction industry safety performance, as a whole, has been slow for many reasons including insufficient incorporation of prevention through design and lack of consistent safety culture in all parts of the industry.

There is a growing understanding in both academia and business of the need to expand the teaching of ethical concepts in undergraduate curricula. One aspect of ethics training that has not yet been emphasized is the link between teaching ethics in general and the necessity of teaching concepts for developing and fostering a culture of safety within an organization. Professionals are responsible for leading most organizations where the safety culture of the organization’s operations is important to protect life, injury, and public safety. The ethics education of future industry and academic leaders is critical to the development of a knowledge of safety culture, a mindset of zero workplace incidents and injuries, and a clear understanding of professional responsibility for safety.

In 2022-2023, the National Academy of Construction conducted its first symposia series on creating safety culture concepts in undergraduate education. The series illustrated how educators and industry can introduce safety culture concepts to undergraduates in construction-related programs. Successes in this area are now being seen.

The benefits of introducing safety culture concepts in curricula include:

• Academia will produce better-prepared graduates who understand safety culture and why it is critical for sustained outstanding safety performance.
• Industry will be able to hire new employees who are ready to address and participate in this critically important element in improving safety performance.
• Graduates will be able to assess safety cultures and be more valuable because of their knowledge, skills, and abilities.