Practical Skills Development Center: How to Foster Conscious Safety Attitudes Among Production Personnel?

From Formalism to Awareness: The Evolution of Industrial Training

Creating an effective training system for production personnel is one of the key tasks in developing a safety culture. With new legislative requirements coming into force (in particular, Training Procedure No. 2464), many companies faced a choice: outsource training or develop internal expertise. The presentation details the experience of OJSC Krastsvetmet, which created its own Practical Skills Development Center (PSDC). This allowed the company not only to meet legal requirements but also to qualitatively change employees' attitudes toward HSE issues.

The speaker explains why the company abandoned the services of external training centers. The main reasons were the inability to ensure proper quality control, the lack of adaptation to the specifics of a particular production facility, and a formal approach to the process. Internal training, on the contrary, made it possible to integrate corporate values into every program and focus on real practical skills rather than just obtaining certificates.

Training Philosophy: The Four Pillars of Safety

The PSDC's work is based on a philosophy of four principles: the value of life and health, awareness, responsibility, and risk-oriented thinking. The speaker shows by example how these principles are implemented in practice. The introductory session is structured not as a dry lecture, but as an equal dialogue discussing real hazards and their consequences. This helps shift employees from unconscious unsafe actions to conscious safe behavior.

Special attention is paid to forming the neural connection of "hazard — consequence — how to avoid." This approach allows workers to understand the meaning of the rules, rather than just memorizing them. Responsibility is formed through the realization that every daily choice affects one's own life and health.

Practice as the Foundation: From PPE to Firefighting

A key feature of the PSDC is its maximum focus on practicing skills. The program includes training on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), first aid, and fire safety. Training is not limited to theory: first aid skills are practiced on mannequins, and firefighting is practiced on real fires using real extinguishers at the gas rescue station.

To increase efficiency, a blended learning format is used. The theoretical base is provided through video lessons on the internal training portal, which frees up time for in-person practical classes. This approach ensures deep immersion in the material and better skill retention.

Economic and Social Effects

Creating an internal training center required investments in facilities and the preparation of internal trainers, but the economic effect was significant. The speaker notes that independent training saved over 6 million rubles compared to the costs of external training centers. In addition, indirect savings are achieved by reducing injury rates and avoiding fines.

But the main results were the social effects. During the project's implementation, not a single accident occurred in the company. The change in attitude toward training fostered increased trust between management and workers, reduced formalism, and raised the overall level of safety culture.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to organize an internal practical skills development center from scratch?
• What arguments to use to justify abandoning external training centers?
• How to overcome employee resistance and engage them in the training process?
• Which training formats and methods are most effective for production personnel?
• How to integrate practical skills training (first aid, firefighting) into standard programs?