Seminar Management and Methods
POSITIVE seminars proceed according to the following five steps, which are planned in consideration of actual conditions in the country concerned. The timing, number of days, and content of seminars carried out under the POSITIVE program are carefully planned over anything from half a day to four days in accordance with the objectives. Regardless of the length of the seminar, however, the basic framework is the following five steps.
- Trainers in charge from the national center and labour unions prepare for the seminar and solicit participants in accordance with the workplaces and region concerned.
- On the first day of the seminar, participants are registered and an opening ceremony is held. The seminar itself begins with self-introductions by the participants and other activities designed with ice-breaking.
- In the POSITIVE seminar, participants visit an actual workplace and, with a fresh look in checklist practice.
- Through the workplace visit, seminar participants learn about good examples of improvements that are useful for safe and healthy working. They also check the point to be improved.
- The four-day basic POSITIVE seminar covers six technical areas.
- In the sessions on each technical area, trainers explain improvement points and introduce examples of improvement. After the presentations by the trainers, the participants discuss three good points and three improvement points for the workplace that they visited for checklist practice. They then present the results of discussions.
- All groups develop a final plan. This provides a good opportunity for them to discuss what workers and unions can do to promote occupational safety and health.
- The employer of the workplace participants visited at the first day is invited to the final-proposal session. For the participants, presenting final proposals to the employer is a very satisfying experience.
- Follow-up activities are important for the sustained and independent management of the programme. Trainers plan monitoring visit to the factory and achievement workshop for exchanging their experiences.
