Baltic PR Awards 2010 Category: Public Affairs

Driving changes for vocational education

Situation

Every year in Latvia around 300 people at the age from 18 to 25 suffer in accidents at work.

State Labor Inspectorate confirms that youth in Latvia lacks skills and training, is unaware of

own rights and responsibilities. Eurostat also proves that 18 to 24-year-olds are 50% more

likely to be hurt at work than older people.

The pupils of vocational schools are a risk group for work safety issues, however, there is no

systematic approach to teaching occupational safety topics. The Ministry of Science and

Education has not come up with a program for vocational schools, meanwhile level of

awareness among pupils depends directly on the individual approach of the teachers.

Indicating the strong need to mainstream occupational safety into the curriculum of vocational

education, Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Latvia (LBAS) involved Consultancy to

develop a special program that would reveal the knowledge gaps of pupils and form a

background for discussions with government officials.

Research

Data on accidents at work and complaints from State Labour Inspectorate were collected and

analyzed together with government officials and social partners. These data formed a

background for public communication and messages, as well as were used as argument,

when convincing teachers to participate.

Several focus group discussions were organized consisting of experts from the Ministry of

Science and Education, teachers from vocational schools and students to discuss the content

of the curriculum of vocational education. This provided essential information on topics which

should be covered in the competition.

Analysis of the similar contest in 2008 was crucial to understand the main knowledge gaps

and to more precisely work out topics for current year.

Since the occupational safety contest was organized for the second time LBAS had an

ambition to expand it in comparison with the previous time, therefore Consultancy had to look

for partnerships – occupational safety authorities, professional associations and private

experts.

Strategy

Primary objective of organizing the contest was to obtain data which later could be used to

demonstrate the issue and to call government officials to an action. Secondary objective was

to promote popularity and reputation of trade unions amongst potential young workers.

Three different stakeholder groups were identified: curriculum set-up authorities, state

financed vocational schools and last year vocational students.

To achieve credibility of results, it was crucial to demonstrate importance of the competition

and seriousness of its methodology, therefore strategy of the contest was characterized by

two main principles: involvement of decision makers and use of all necessary instruments to

gain maximum response from schools. Experts from the Ministry of Science and Education,

Ministry of Welfare and State labor inspectorate were involved a lot in the preparation of

questionnaires and practical exercises and were invited to participate in all events.

To encourage students from vocational schools to be more interested in their labor rights and

occupational safety, Consultancy proposed to organize a contest that would provide learning

by doing opportunity and via competitive atmosphere would motivate teachers to pay special

attention to safety matters.

Competition was organized in three phases – questionnaires, semi-finals and final event. Last

year students from all vocational schools could apply and fill in questionnaires consisting of

more than 40 questions about labor rights, occupational risks and preventive measures, as

well as trade unions and social dialogue. To localize competition and get regional media

coverage five best teams from each region: Riga, Vidzeme, Kurzeme, Latgale and Zemgale

were invited to semi-finals – a real life event with theoretical and practical exercises. One

team from each region was short-listed for the finals and could compete for the valuable

prizes.

The implementation of project was used as a reason for meetings with authorities. After

results of the contest were available, further meetings with government officials and social

partners were organized to discuss deeper the problem of lack of attention to safety and risk

education. Significant differences among various schools were used as a proof for the need

or more systematic approach to safety and risk education.

To improve communication with vocational schools data base of teachers responsible for

social and safety topics was set up. It was used not only during competition, but also

afterwards to inform about topical issues. During semi-finals and final event LBAS interviewed

teachers to share their views about format and content of the contest.

Results

Extra high involvement of vocational schools was obtained - 85% of all vocational schools in

Latvia participated in the competition and more than 2300 students filled in questionnaires

demonstrating their knowledge and understanding about occupational safety and labor rights.

LBAS got an objective and comparable data which approved serious lack of systematic and

common approach to teaching occupational safety topics in vocational schools. Average

share of right answers varied from 27% to 79%. These findings formed an important platform

for future discussions with the Ministry of Science and Education and provided evidence for

necessary changes in the curriculum.

During competition high interest from regional media was ensured and 89% of publications

were very positive and positive. Despite the fact that vocational education is a quite narrow

topic, media content analysis showed that 293 347 Latvian inhabitants were reached through

media coverage and thus informed about importance of occupational safety.

85% vocational

schoolsinvolved

2334 students participated

http://profs2009.lbas.lv/

Driving changes

for vocational education