hazard reduction training to Cobar next month. ▪ Photo contributed
CSA Mine employees will be the first in Australia to undergo a new hazard awareness training that was developed in the United States.
Mine site training professionals, SiteTrain, who have offices in Cobar, Forbes and Kalgoorlie, will be delivering Visual Literacy Hazard Identification training to CSA Mine’s 400 staff members next month.
Visual Literacy training uses the tools taught in art education to see detail in works of art and applies them to identifying workplace hazards to improve safety performance.
SiteTrain’s owner/manager Damien Palazzi, said the course is a fresh, new approach to hazard reduction training.
“It might seem a little bit out there—miners and art and architecture,” Damien told The Cobar Weekly.
“I’ve had a few conversations with people about it and they roll their eyes and say ‘Really Damo?”
After teaching the same risk assessment modules over and over again for the past 15 years, Damien felt it was time to refresh the hazard reduction course.
“Participants have heard it so many times and then it starts to glaze over.”
For his training to be effective, Damien knew he needed to find a different approach.
He started research and two years ago came across Visual Literacy training being carried out by COVE (Centre of Visual Expertise), which was created by the Toledo Museum of Art in the United States.
“I contacted them and at first they said they weren’t really set up for international training but we persisted,” Damien said.
He flew to the US last year to do the training himself and for the past 18 months has been working with COVE to bring the training to Australia.
