Educational aspects of systematic occupational training.

Education and training are common countermeasures in order to achieve and maintain occupational safety. Educational methods may be e-learning courses, lectures, individual studies, practical exercises, team building etc. One question is whether one educational method is better than another when it comes to safety and HSE. The answer is not obvious. A related question is related to whether training has the desired effects on safety. Whether education has an positive effect on safety may be a controversial matter. The results from differ-ent traffic studies disagree. Some even say that education may contribute to negative and unwanted effects like increased accident rate. Several studies in Norway have concluded that education reduce the number of accidents, while other studies indicate the opposite. One question is whether this also is the case in the petro-leum sector. Whether education is a well funded safety measure, is open to question. If the results indicate that a partic-ular education has negative effects on safety; why is this possible? And – is it possible to adjust some of the educational aspects in order to get positive results? This may be aspects like teaching and learning methods, participant grouping, teacher – student interactions, classroom climate, classroom organization and structure. This paper will include both theory and empirical data. The theoretical presentation will place emphasis on reflections on educational practices. Here significance and consequences to safety and HSE will be focused. Theoretical perspectives will be discussed and exemplified by one educational case in the petroleum industry. In one of the Norwegian oil companies, training in work processes is regarded as a significant measure in safe-ty development. This paper presents data both from traffic safety and the petroleum sector.