A case study on the Industrial Risk Management (IRM) post-master academic education program of MINES Paris PSL University

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an academic safety education program case study. Since 2004, more than 300 students have graduated from the MINES Paris PSL University Industrial Risk Management (IRM) post-master program. The program addresses Occupational Health and Safety and Industrial Safety topics. Students are recruited from a large panel of Master Programs, going from Safety, Health, and Quality to Environmental Studies. Students then follow a 500-hour program, and they do a 1000-hour internship. Most of the students find a job related to one of those two domains.The general idea behind this case study is to reflect on the relation between a safety education program and the safety professional (alumni of the program): how a student turns out to become a safety professional, how the safety professional looks back to his education in regard of his current professional situation in the safety domain. The results of this case study have direct implications for the organisation of the IRM program and academic safety education programs in general. In this paper we will focus on the alumni of the IRM program: What are they? What are they doing? What is expected of them? To what extent did their training and education influence them? What is the fundamental knowledge they think need to master when taking up a job? What kind of knowledge and competencies do they use, and do they need in their job?This case study was based on several methodologies. More than a hundred alumni participated to a survey in 2017. A focus group with several alumni was organized in 2018. A “before” and “after” graduation survey was done. A fundamental knowledge assessment was done in 2019 on one cohort of students and their feedback on this test was collected. A critical reflection about learning in the safety field and quality analysis of safety education programs is made and perspectives about future curricula are proposed. Finally, the results of those studies enable us to re-engineer academic safety professional education programs. Further perspectives deal with the role of safety professionals in their organisations and with a reflexion on their contributions to safety.