July 23-24, 2002
Colorado School of Mines
Golden, Colorado

by
Guy A. Johnson, Staff Engineer
Western Mining Resource Center

The seminar focused on identifying training solutions in all segments of the western mining industry. This was accomplished via presentations by senior mine health and safety professionals, followed by separate break out sessions for open pit and underground coal, metal and nonmetal mining, crushed stone and aggregate operations and contractors plus state H&S programs. The challenges of preserving a well trained, but continually changing workforce were addressed, along with the benefits offered by new training "tools" such as multimedia, interactive CDs, computer visualizations, etc.

Besides the formal program, many networking opportunities were available to the seminar attendees. During these informal periods, training material progressions such as: 16 mm health & safety films - then videos - then CDs - and now DVDs (that can be produced on-site to customize content) were delineated.

The seminar did not produce a final "blueprint" for improving western H&S training. Instead, CSM's new Western Mining Resources Center is developing a "living document" that will be used as a guide, and will be continually be updated and customized by health and safety professionals.

The Seminar's highlights included:

1. More than 100 attendees participated in the 2002 Training Solutions Seminar

2. Presentations were made by industry, academic, and union safety professionals, usually followed by spirited discussions - these "stakeholders" were providing input for a road map for cooperative work by NIOSH / MSHA / WMRC delineating western training issues

3. Most presentations were via Power Point graphics, thus they are available in digitized form from WMRC's web site

4. Bob Ferriter summarized WMRC's work for 2001 - 2002, emphasizing future work to summarize "best practices" and creating an electronic catalogue on training materials for industry's use

5. Tom Camm (of NIOSH - Spokane) commented on the mining industry's changing workforce, noting the emergence of a new generation of miners with changing cultural values - thus training materials must be undated with a "systems engineering" approach (mentoring and social learning theory could be the basis of such work) - Elaine Cullen's award winning videos were also delineated

6. Rod Breland of MSHA summarized the new Educational Field Service's work, which started in 1998 and expands the old E&T program

7. Elaine Cullen (NIOSH - Spokane) and Bob Peters (NIOSH - Pittsburgh) summarized NIOSH's perspective and training-related work at the labs in Pittsburgh and Spokane - emphasizing progressive research in human factors research and developing virtual reality training tools

8. Carolyn Durga of BHP Billiton summarized an industry prospective - which emphasized common sense training objectives and "coaching and correcting" rather than punishment as the cornerstone of an operation's H&S program

9. Linda Lake of Liberty Mutual summarized an insurance company's perspective on modern H&S work noting that training is important, but did not affect an operator's insurance rates - her outline of a "Model of Safety Evolution" was a highlight of the talk. She did emphasize that on-site house- keeping was viewed by insurance company representatives as a strong indication of the way a mining company conducts its operations

10. Kathy Easton's presentation on tips to help improve "Train the Trainer" work was highlighted by her ROPES technique of planning for a proper H&S training project

11. Keynote presentations in the morning of July 24 followed the six work group presentations and included:

A. MSHA's John Caylor overview of an enlarged training effort within MSHA, and a role of "One MSHA" for the revitalized organization

B. NIOSH's Dr. Lewis Wade presented his perspective to H&S training, emphasizing efforts to get products and services into use in the real world via training (i.e., helping to bridge the gap between research results and in-field use) and their development of better training tools - - such as the use of virtual reality and short, 5-minute "toolbox training" aids

C. U of Missouri - Rolla's Dr. Larry Grayson followed this talk with a presentation for the development of an "Action Plan" focusing on the Western mining's community's training needs for the 21st century

D. Ron Hughes of Solvay Minerals outlined his thinking on a "Safe Production Culture" in modern mines - where safety is "valued" - and where "Safety Makes Sense"

E. Bill York-Fern of Colorado's state program then updated attendees on the many new training tools developed by his program - such as the new underground coal conveyor safety video, and a new surface conveyor educational CD

The seminar concluded with a strong commitment by all parties to continue to work toward improving Safety and Health training for the Western mining community