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TRAIN4WORK

Train4Work News & Events

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May 2021

“Human-centred design is the solution to develop effective, efficient  and productive work environments”

Free Webinar
Dissemination of project
Results20th May 202111:00 – 12:00 (CET)

The characteristics of the spaces and workstations affect the development of the work in a very relevant way, from the point of view of the safety and health of the workers and also in relation to the effectiveness, efficiency and productivity in the tasks. 

Human-centred work environments consider their characteristics and needs in the design and implementation to ensure the proper performance of tasks. 

Under this approach, following the methodology of human-centered design and applying it to the development of work environments, within the framework of the “Train4HCwork” project an online course has been developed that includes the disciplines and key aspects to consider for the development of human-centered industrial environments. 

ADDRESSED TO: 

  • Professionals related to the design and implementation of work environments. 
  • Responsible for planning, processes, job design, production department personnel or industry organization. 
  • Designers of machinery or work equipment. 
  • Personnel responsible for health and safety, human resources personnel. • Students from nearby areas of knowledge. 

OBJETIVES: 

Present IBV as a reference center in ergonomics and human factors. • Introduce the human-centered design approach and how to translate it into the design and implementation of industrial / work environments. • Present the new Train4HCwork course.

MODALITY:

Online 100%. The participants will connect through a videoconference system. The access codes will be provided once the registration is formalized. 

CONTENTS: 

  1. Presentation of the IBV and the Occupational Health Unit and introduction to human-centered design. 
  2. Application of human-centered design to spaces and workstations 
  3. Importance and necessity of the adaptation to the people of the work environments. The point of view of the ergonomists. 
  4. Detailed explanation of the course developed within the framework of the Train4HCwork project. 

SPEAKERS: 

  • Mercedes Sanchis. Head of Innovation – Occupational Health and Safety at Instituto de Biomecánica. 
  • Raquel Marzo. Researcher at Instituto de Biomecánica. People’s Needs and Preferences Area. 
  • Alberto Ferreras. Researcher at Instituto de Biomecánica. People’s Needs and Preferences Area. 
  • Pedro Ferreira. Treasurer at FEES. 
  • José Francisco Serrano. Technician at Instituto de Biomecánica. Human Factors Area. 
TECHINICAL REQUIREMENTS:

The participant must have a computer with an  internet connection and a microphone. If possible, a webcam is recommended.  The connection will be made via videoconference system. Access codes will be  provided once registration has been formalized.

Program_Train4HCworkDownload

November 2020

TRAIN4HCWORK at the H-WORKLOAD conference | 03 December 2020

As partner in the project, FEES will be presenting project achievements at the online Conference H-WORKLOAD 2020.

The conference was initially planned to take place at the University of Granada, Spain but due to the pandemic limitations, was moved to an online format. Registration are available HERE. 

June 2020

TRAIN4HCWORK Multiplier event (online) | 24 June 2020, 13:00 (CET)

hosted by IAD /TU Darmstadt

Principles of User Centred design in a Product Development Process (in German)

Session1 (1 hour)
  • Description of the Product Development Process (PDP)
  • Definition of the term “context of use” according to DIN EN ISO 9241-210
  • Usage context analysis
    • User
    • Goals & Tasks
    • Physical Environment
  • Selected Methods for analysing the context of use
Session 2 (1 hour)

Analysis of the usage context on an example “bicycle”

For more information and registration please contact Jurij Wakula at iad.tu-Darmstadt

May 2020

Success of the TRAIN4HCWORK pilot course

Trainees from 21 countries took part in the Online training course on  design of human-centred workplaces

Human centred workplaces are a key essential part of the factories of the future due to important advantages. The COVID-19 pandemic obliged the corporate world to look for a new worker’s future but, in this field, research has never stopped.

The launch of the TRAIN4HCWORK aroused interest and the participation was outstanding.

“The assistance was above any expectations”, states Project Coordinator José Serrano, “And we covered all the target groups“.

There were 88 students enrolled in the course, from 21 different Countries. “We have Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Portugal or Germany but also Russia, China, India, Costa Rica and the United States, among others. We didn’t know we could get so far”, follows Serrano.

77.5% of the trainees has completed successfully the course, with an almost perfect gender balance, 54% male and 46% female.

During the following months, the consortium will work on the analysis of feedback from the pilot course and the implementation of improvements. Finally, the course will be available in English, French, Spanish and German.

“After the emergency, TRAIN4HCWORK is more topical than ever”, states Giuseppe Caprara, Innovation Manager at IBV.

According to Sarah Tilley from Wunderman Thompson, “The pandemic has shown business leaders and their employees that the old way of working is not fit for the future we now face. (…) As countries begin to relax restrictions and economies restart, workers will look to a brighter, more employee-focused future.”

TRAIN4HCWORK sets the tone: the workplaces of the future will give much more importance to human knowledge, skills and cultural background, in particular through life-long learning and training. Human-centred workplaces not only remain essential in the pursuit of reduced occupational and work-related diseases and injuries, and absenteeism, but they will also become increasingly critical to ensure the flexibility, agility, and competitiveness that will be imposed on future manufacturing operations.

TRAIN4HCWORK is also preparing two multiplier events, that will be organised by the project partner Technische Universitat Darmstadt and by the coordinator IBV, at the end of the project, scheduled for March 2021.

March 2020

TRAIN4HCWORK launches the pilot course

The English version of the TRAIN4HCWORK online course will be piloted between March and May. We are looking for participants from the following professional groups:

  • Engineers responsible for workplaces, process and production design
  • Engineers responsible for machinery, working equipment and tools design
  • Health and safety managers
  • Consultants who provide services related to these issues to industry
  • Human resources professionals (recruitment and job assignment of workers)
  • Students

! SIGN UP FOR THE TRAIN4HCWORK PILOT COURSE FOR FREE !

To apply, all you need to do is (before 15 March):

  • Create your profile at IBV CAMPUS VIRTUAL
  • Confirm your interest in joining the TRAIN4HCWORK pilot course by emailing Raquel Portilla (campus.ibv@ibv.org) with the following details:
    • First and last name
    • Email contact
    • Occupation
    • Country of residence
    • Also please place “TRAIN4HCWORK COURSE – IBV” on the subject of your message

For more information, please refer to the course learning guide and the pilot flyer

January 2020

TRAIN4HCWORK meeting in Grenoble

On 29 January 2020, the T4W team met in Grenoble for the review and planning of up coming project work. Nicolas Vuillerme and Romain Balaguer from the partner Universite Grenoble Alpes (UGA) were the hosts.

The contents of the course are nearly concluded and a pilot exercise will be launched in March. The pilot course will be in English and it will also include audio and video slots and it will be hosted at IBV educational platform (Campus IBV).

TRAIN4HCWORK is also preparing the first multiplier event, that will be organized by the project partner Technische Universitat Darmstadt, represented in the meeting by Jurij Wakula. Pedro Ferreira from Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES) and Hugo Merelo from Structo engineering complete the attending team to the Grenoble meeting.

September 2019

TRAIN4HCWORK meeting in Darmstad

On 25 September 2019, the T4W team met in Darmstad for the review and planning of up coming project work. New developments will come soon, as we progress towards the development of course contents.

May 2019

First results of the Train4HCWork project

After the first six months of work, consortium has already developed the course structure, the online learning methodology and even a proposal of contents organized in different modules and sessions. These outcomes have been obtained with the participation of people from the target groups to ensure the course will respond to their formative needs.

In order to know the training requirements of professionals around Europe, IBV, IAD and UAG firstly organized five focus groups (with a total of 34 participants) and lastly, together with FEES and Structo, realized an open-source online survey in five different languages (English, Spanish, French, Dutch and Serbian). More than one hundred answers from different countries were achieved.

Finally, FEES carried out the analysis of information obtained on the online survey (including SWOT analysis, priorization of requirements, differences among potential end-users), to obtain the final training requirements for the online course to be developed in the project. With that information, IBV, IAD and UGA established the recognition framework and defined the Curriculum of the course.

January 2019

Online TRAIN4WORK questionnaire

The project TRAIN4WORK launched an online questionnaire on 13 February 2019 to identify training requirements, define learning objectives and course structure of a new learning material.

The questionnaire aims to gather data to support the development of the online training course which targets all those who are involved in the design (or re-development) of work systems but are not ergonomics and human factors specialists.

The questionnaire can be accessed in four different languages

The questionnaire will be open until April 30 2019.

The TRAIN4WORK is an initiative of the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies under the umbrella of Erasmus+, to create a freely accessible online ergonomics training material.

Supporting musculoskeletal health in the workplace

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The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is running a Europe-wide campaign from 2020 to 2022 to raise awareness of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and the importance of preventing them. The objective is to encourage employers, workers and other stakeholders to work together to prevent MSDs and promote good musculoskeletal health among EU workers.

Why it is so important to prevent work-related MSDs and to promote good musculoskeletal health among EU workers?

  1. Key for EU workers’ quality of life and for sustainable work, productivity and social security systems.
  2. Work-related MSDs remain the most common work-related health problem in the EU and one of the most common causes of disability and sick leave.
  3. Work-related MSDs result in huge costs that fall on the workers, employers, health services and the wider society and economy.
  4. MSDs are preventable and manageable. So high costs related to MSDs can be reduced. The return on investment for workers’ quality of life at work, businesses and social security systems is worth the effort.
  5. Taking into account the need for an ageing EU workforce to remain healthy and productive, it is urgent for organisations to implement MSD policies to prevent and reduce work-related MSDs.
  6. As well as the prevention of new disorders, rehabilitating workers with MSDs and integrating them back into work should also form an integral part of any workplace MSD policy.

All info sheets and other campaign materials are available to download from EU-OSHA’s Healthy Workplaces Campaign website (https://healthy-workplaces.eu).

“Ergonomists are committed to creating safe and healthy workplaces with the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders.” The Federation of the European Ergonomic Societies submitted the application to be the official campaign partner of the upcoming Healthy Workplaces – Lighten the Load 2020-2022 campaign organized by European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

Good and innovative study programmes wanted

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The recently established Task Group on Integrating
SDG 8 into Higher Education, supported by the Global Coalition on Safety
and Health at Work (coordinated by the ILO), wants to learn more about the implementation of good, sustainable work and productive employment (SDG 8) in educational programs at universities in Europe. The aim is to identify models of good practice and to stimulate cross-border exchange and discussion between universities.

To this end, the Task Group has developed a short online questionnaire to analyze relevant content
and methods of study programs. At this stage, the main challenge is to identify responsible academic leaders of such programs within universities, initially in
Europe.

Sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

The Task Group would very much appreciate to be informed about good and innovative education and training programs (university, program, contact) in
the following professional fields: (1) occupational safety, hygiene and
ergonomics; (2) occupational medicine (in the medical curriculum and in
specialist further training for occupational physicians); (3) human resource
management (business and management schools).

If you would like to get involved in this project
by supporting the Task Group, please contact ulrike.bollmann@dguv.de.

IETI Transactions on Ergonomics and Safety special issue addresses COVID-19

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Following the consistent striving of the FEES, IEA, and our ergonomics community on the prevention of the pandemic, we wish to inform you that recently has been published a special issue of the Following the consistent striving of the FEES, IEA, and our ergonomics community on prevention of the pandemic, we wish to inform you that recently has been published a special issue of the IETI Transactions on Ergonomics and Safety journal.

IETI Transactions on Ergonomics and Safety serves ergonomics in the limitation of virus spreading and alleviation of pandemic effects. 

This IETI Transactions on Ergonomics and Safety special issue addresses COVID-19 virus first in any international journal from the domain of ergonomics. Together with other exciting matters here, you can find why the role of ergonomics is essential when it comes to the prevention of spreading the COVID-19 virus at workplaces.

ERGONOMIST TO MANAGE DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES BETTER

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The “Manage Dangerous Substances” EU-OSHA workplace health and safety campaign was launched on April 2018 and following traditions the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES) become an official campaign partner again.

FEES dedicates the 2018 / 19 European Month of Ergonomics – “ERGONOMIST TO MANAGE DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES BETTER” to identify, elaborate and demonstrate how ergonomic profession can contribute to the healthy and safe handling of hazardous substances.

FEES encourages ergonomist and their networks or organisations to join in, organise events, sessions, press conferences, communicate and promote the ergonomics profession capabilities.

The Communication and Promotion Committee of FEES calls educational institutions to initiate research and development programs, in particular student projects, master thesis and PhD works to produce solutions of high ergonomics quality in regard of management of hazardous substances, and submit these result to the The Healthy Workplaces Good Practice Awards

FEES campaign activity has begun May 24, 2018, in Poznan at the Polish Ergonomics Society seminar, when Gyula Szabó, chair of Communication and Promotion Committee of FEES presented the initial EME communication package. The “ERGONOMIST TO MANAGE DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES BETTER” ppt presentation downloadable from this page, and can be used at EME related activity in October at the EME period, and around the year when feasible.

EME_2018_v_1Download

FEES proposal on “Future of work”

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FEES proposes the member societies implement the IEA “future of work project in Europe, which means:

  • To create a FEES Task Force “future of work”
  • To name in each member society a referee on this issue, which tasks are:
    • To lead and moderate the reflection
    • To inventory the research centers and private or public bodies involved in this issues: detecting local, national, regional data on issues affecting the working life; employment and job trends from governmental reports and from employers and workers organizations; research papers from academia.
    • To spread information on the issue
    • To get in touch with the ILO offices in the European countries in order to make known the project and to envisage everyday actions, to capture ILO initiatives, data, reports, publications.
    • To make proposals in order to improve and develop the initiatives proposed by the IEA “future of work” task force.
    • To meet by skype and physically (at the latest during the IEA triennial congress in Florence – August 2018)
  • To set up an European observatory on the Future of work linked with the IEA observatory.
    The aim of the Observatory is to capture and report data and news of ergonomics interest about trends on the world of work identified in each country in order to create an ergonomics observatory unit in (geographical) Europe.
  • To prepare the initiatives to set up in the year 2019 with ILO.

Please send comments / proposals to Pascal Etienne secretary-general@ergonomics-fees.eu.

The IEA “future of work project (summary)

IEA has decided to be involved in the ILO project on the future of work, launching a reflection conducted by a task force whose leader is our colleague Juan Hiba, from Argentina. In two documents released in January 2018, our colleague make proposals which are sum up below.

It is important that FEES, in the frame of the MoU adopted with IEA, takes part in this project and sets up a FEES task force in order to specify actions to conduct in 2018, 2019 and maybe further. We will present below both IEA projects and the possible way of working on this issue for the FEES member societies.

Two proposals have been made by J. Hiba on behalf of the « future of work » task force: to set up a White paper on the future of work and an Observatory. They are sum up below.

The “White paper on the future of work”

Context – Rationale – Opportunities

This initiative links the prospects of the future of ergonomics as a science and technology with the ILO initiative of its centenary named “The Future of Work” and could be a roadmap for guiding IEA’s and its affiliated associations on how to gain ILO interest for paying more attention to ergonomics from now on. A strategy should be developed to ensuring that the White Paper reaches all the ILO levels: headquarters and in the field.

Structure and content of the white paper

1 Presentation of ergonomics as a science and technology; (ii) summary of the background of joint activities carried out; and (iii) focus on the concurrent circumstances of the future of ergonomics and the future of work and therefore the opportunity for discovering key aspects of common actions.

2 Visions and proposals of IEA in relation to each of the four global dialogues (also called “centenary conversations”) as requested by the ILO are:

  • Work and Society: new scenario; changes in the workers and employers’ identity; globalization; new digitalized technologies and communications; hyperconnectivity.
  • Decent Jobs for All: full employment; safe and free productive work, social protection, union rights, remuneration.
  • The Organization of Work and Production: to tackle issues of the emerging platform economy, global supply chains and the nature of the enterprises of the future
  • The Governance of Work: to identify the rules, processes, and institutions needed in the future to make work decent and societies just.

A special attention should be given to point out the links of ergonomics to the most current issues of interest to the ILO, such as the green economy, the phenomena of offshoring of companies, jobs in the computer world, robotization of many jobs, issues of safety and health at work and participation of workers in the processes of improving their working conditions.

3 The current convergence of common grounds of action between IEA (“ergonomics optimizes human well being and overall system”) and ILO (: “Promoting jobs, protecting people”) – a comparative list of work topics and productive sectors of interest for ergonomics and for the ILO – a selection of successful case studies showing ergonomics interventions in different regions of the world. These examples should show both benefits to workers (i.e. satisfaction, better labor relations and working conditions) as well as improved business productivity and sustainability. It is highly recommended that case studies come from different world regions (Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa),

4 list a series of tentative activities and initiatives offered to ILO.

5 Collaborators mentioned : Yushi Fujita, Kathleen Mosier, José Orlando Gomes; Andrew Todd, Thomas Alexander, Sarah Sharples, Juan Carlos Hiba, + Sara Albolino and Valérie Pueyo.

6 Language of the document: the three official languages of ILO: English, Spanish and French.

The Observatory

The aim of the Observatory is to provide periodic information on situations, trends and work cases that establish, set or modify different aspects of the quality of life of workers; to give support and encourage carrying out of studies and research on ergonomic aspects of quality of life of workers in the local socio-economic and labor environments; and to promote greater knowledge (principles and values) and disseminate examples of application (approaches, methods and technical tools) of ergonomics and human factors for improving the quality of working life.

The Ergonomics Observatory can develop activities of at least three types

  • Search and analysis of information of ergonomic interest such as detecting, identifying, analyzing and commenting on changes and/or innovations that have occurred in the field of quality of life at work that are of interest to ergonomics;
  • systematic communication of detected information (data, facts and figures, situations, trends and cases) related to the quality of work-life; and
  • launching warnings, calls for attention and organizing advocacy actions among stakeholders to ensure that ergonomics is more and better known and to disseminate the potential contributions that could be made in those cases.

Information sources

Journalistic notes, interviews and articles from scientific works of refereed journals; reports, or books from research centres; publications of governmental agencies; declarations or manifestos emanating from scientific congresses, reports from employers’ and workers’ organizations; regulation in collective agreements or laws, decrees, resolutions and reports adopted by governments or specialized agencies.

Users

National ergonomics associations, their members and professional, teachers, researchers, officials from governments, members of employers’ and workers’ organizations; news agencies ; employers, workers and public in general.

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STREAMLINING THE PRODUCTION PROCESS AND REDUCING STRESS

Gyula Szabo Leave a comment

Bernard Michez and Samuel Le Gal
www.ergotec.fr

STREAMLINING-THE-PRODUCTION-PROCESS-AND-REDUCING-STRESSDownload

About ERGONOMICS PRACTICE EXAMPLES

The field of practice of professional ergonomists is very wide and covers all aspects concerning the health, well-being and productivity of people at work. Some ergonomic interventions concentrate on designing workplaces so that the work can be done comfortably and safely over a long period. Others look at the safety and ease of use of tools and computer interfaces. Others look at the organization of work systems to optimize workflow and avoid errors.

These papers do not cover all the areas of ergonomics practice, but they may be helpful for people looking for examples of how a professional ergonomist provides solutions for companies wanting to improve the efficiency of their workers without decreasing their safety, health, or well-being.

CONTRIBUTORS

The examples published here were contributed by European Ergonomists and reviewed by representatives from the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomics (CREE) and by the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES).

FFES Logo

If you are a certified ergonomist and wish to contribute, please get in touch with a member of the executive board of CREE or FEES. Contributions are welcome, and no fee is charged.

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COMBINING THE EXPERTISE OF WORKERS WITH OBJECTIVE MEASURES

Gyula Szabo Leave a comment

Veli-Matti Tuure
www.tts.fi

COMBINING-THE-EXPERTISE-OF-WORKERS-WITH-OBJECTIVE-MEASURESDownload

About ERGONOMICS PRACTICE EXAMPLES

The field of practice of professional ergonomists is very wide and covers all aspects concerning the health, well-being and productivity of people at work. Some ergonomic interventions concentrate on designing workplaces so that the work can be done comfortably and safely over a long period. Others look at the safety and ease of use of tools and computer interfaces. Others look at the organization of work systems to optimize workflow and avoid errors.

These papers do not cover all the areas of ergonomics practice, but they may be helpful for people looking for examples of how a professional ergonomist provides solutions for companies wanting to improve the efficiency of their workers without decreasing their safety, health, or well-being.

CONTRIBUTORS

The examples published here were contributed by European Ergonomists and reviewed by representatives from the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomics (CREE) and by the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES).

FFES Logo

If you are a certified ergonomist and wish to contribute, please get in touch with a member of the executive board of CREE or FEES. Contributions are welcome, and no fee is charged.

No posts found.

DECREASING MUSCULO-SKELETAL DISORDERS OF SEATED WORKERS

Gyula Szabo Leave a comment

Nicolas Draye, Haute Ecole Louvain en Hainaut
drayen@helha.be

DECREASING-MUSCULOSKELETAL-DISORDERS-OF-SEATED-WORKERSDownload

About ERGONOMICS PRACTICE EXAMPLES

The field of practice of professional ergonomists is very wide and covers all aspects concerning the health, well-being and productivity of people at work. Some ergonomic interventions concentrate on designing workplaces so that the work can be done comfortably and safely over a long period. Others look at the safety and ease of use of tools and computer interfaces. Others look at the organization of work systems to optimize workflow and avoid errors.

These papers do not cover all the areas of ergonomics practice, but they may be helpful for people looking for examples of how a professional ergonomist provides solutions for companies wanting to improve the efficiency of their workers without decreasing their safety, health, or well-being.

CONTRIBUTORS

The examples published here were contributed by European Ergonomists and reviewed by representatives from the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomics (CREE) and by the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES).

FFES Logo

If you are a certified ergonomist and wish to contribute, please get in touch with a member of the executive board of CREE or FEES. Contributions are welcome, and no fee is charged.

No posts found.

PARTICIPATORY REDESIGN OF A PUBLIC PARK IN THE CITY OF NAPLES

Gyula Szabo Leave a comment

Dr Erminia Attaianese Eu.Erg.
erminia.attaianese@unina.it

PARTICIPATORY-REDESIGN-OF-A-PUBLIC-PARK-IN-THE-CITY-OF-NAPLESDownload

About ERGONOMICS PRACTICE EXAMPLES

The field of practice of professional ergonomists is very wide and covers all aspects concerning the health, well-being and productivity of people at work. Some ergonomic interventions concentrate on designing workplaces so that the work can be done comfortably and safely over a long period. Others look at the safety and ease of use of tools and computer interfaces. Others look at the organization of work systems to optimize workflow and avoid errors.

These papers do not cover all the areas of ergonomics practice, but they may be helpful for people looking for examples of how a professional ergonomist provides solutions for companies wanting to improve the efficiency of their workers without decreasing their safety, health, or well-being.

CONTRIBUTORS

The examples published here were contributed by European Ergonomists and reviewed by representatives from the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomics (CREE) and by the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES).

FFES Logo

If you are a certified ergonomist and wish to contribute, please get in touch with a member of the executive board of CREE or FEES. Contributions are welcome, and no fee is charged.

No posts found.