Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Environmental, Safety and Health Compliance—More than 40 Years of Progress

By Allison von Gruenigen, Compliance Solutions Consultant, Skillsoft

Did you know that in 1969 one of America’s rivers was so polluted with oil and trash that it caught fire?  That forty years ago on average, 38 U.S. workers died on the job each day? 

In 1970, Congress passed laws to protect both human health and the environment. These laws have greatly improved our lives and compliance training has played a major role in achieving the goals set by the agencies tasked with defining and upholding the laws. Skillsoft offers over 125 Environmental, Safety and Health (ESH) titles that support the laws and enhance a learner’s ability to help protect their self, their co-workers, the environment and their community.

Occupational safety and health

Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1970 to assure safe and healthful conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education, and compliance assistance.  Under the OSHA law, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their workers.

In four decades, OSHA and their state partners, coupled with the efforts of employers, safety and health professionals, unions and advocates, have had a dramatic effect on workplace safety.

• Since 1970, workplace fatalities have been reduced by more than 65 percent and occupational injury and illness rates have declined by 67 percent. At the same time, U.S. employment has almost doubled.
• Worker deaths in America are down — from about 38 worker deaths a day in 1970 to 13 a day in 2011.
• Worker injuries and illnesses are down — from 10.9 incidents per 100 workers in 1972 to fewer than 4 per 100 in 2010.

To learn more about OSHA, watch this short video of old and new footage that highlights key moments in the Nation's progress over the past forty years in occupational safety and health protection.

Environmental protection

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans [one in every ten Americans at the time] stood up to demand a cleaner and healthier environment. This first Earth Day was one of the largest grassroots demonstrations in our nation’s history and it worked. By the end of the year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created and tasked with both cleaning up the damage already done to the environment and establishing guidelines to help Americans make a cleaner and safer environment a reality. 

The vast environmental improvements made in the last 40 years have benefitted every single American.

Air quality

• In the 40 years since the Clean Air Act went into effect, America has reduced 60% of the dangerous air pollutants that cause smog, acid rain, lead poisoning and more.
• Today, new cars are 98 percent cleaner than in 1970 in terms of smog-forming pollutants.  This change has made Americans healthier.

Protecting America's water

Forty years ago the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so filled with oily waste and industrial pollution that it actually caught fire.  Today, the EPA is working to protect the water resources that keep our families healthy, our communities clean, and our country strong.

• Sixty-percent more Americans were served by publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities from 1968 to 2008.
• In a study of lakes from the 1970s to 2007, water quality improved. Half the lakes saw less nutrient concentrations (forming green sludge) and a quarter saw improved trophic status.
• Today, more than 2,000 water bodies identified as impaired in 2002 now meet water quality standards.
• The number of Americans receiving drinking water that met health standards went from 79 percent, in 1993, to 92 percent, in 2008.

Recycling

• American families and businesses went from recycling about 10 percent of trash in 1980 to more than 33 percent in 2008.  America recycles 83 million tons of trash annually.  That’s like cutting green house gas emissions from more than 33 million automobiles.

EPA @ 40 video

Watch this video montage of archival and contemporary footage that captures some of the most pivotal and memorable events of past 40 years of the environmental protection movement.

Skillsoft’s ESH compliance solutions

Skillsoft offers over 125 ESH courses, with translated courses available in the following languages (not all courses are available in all languages):

• Latin American Spanish
• Chinese Mandarin
• Canadian English and French
• German

ESH compliance courseware can be delivered and tracked through the Skillsoft Academy or Skillport® platforms and has a proven track record with third-party learning management systems. The courseware and technology conform to standards including Section 508, AICC and SCORM. The Skillsoft Academy platform manages blended curricula of elearning compliance courses along with records of other types of training such as classroom, video or on-the-job training, so all training records can be managed in one system.

For more information, visit our website.

Allison von Gruenigen has worked in the environmental, safety and health field for over twenty years. She is a Compliance Solutions Consultant at Skillsoft.

Improve the Office 2010 Skills of Your German Staff

The SkillSoft Office 2010 KnowledgeCenter™ is now available in German. This is good news for our German customers as well as our customers with offices overseas!  The content isn’t just translated – it’s localized so it’s contextually relevant for that market.

What’s a KnowledgeCenter, you say?

It’s a portal that gives learners instant access to targeted, pre-packaged content on key topics. Each KnowledgeCenter includes material specifically chosen to help learners build knowledge around a topic as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The new German-focused KnowledgeCenter contains articles, courses and online books in German, including hands-on Practice Labs allowing business professionals to learn and use Office 2010 skills in a real-time environment.

Café: It’s about a conversation.

I would not be the first person to observe that companies are often like families.  Especially in organizations where employees stick around for a while, over time you begin to feel like you know the people in your workplace as well as you do your family members.  You know their strengths, weaknesses and eccentricities.  You know who has a wicked sense of humor and who has that annoying habit of bouncing their leg and shaking the conference room table (that would be me).  And you share a history of success and failure that binds you together in a shared purpose. 

One of the things that I find fascinating about SkillSoft is that this family feeling extends to our customers.  This may sound like schmaltzy marketing talk, but I think you would hear the same thing if you talked to one of our long-time customers, and there are many of those.  You would undoubtedly hear a mix of our strengths, weaknesses and our eccentricities, but in most cases, it would be wrapped in an overall tone of affection.

I’m thinking of these things because next week we’re holding Café, which is an event that really embodies SkillSoft and the bond we share with our customers.  Café stands for Client Advisory Forum Event, but the word Café feels more accurate, with its overtone of a coffee klatch.  Café has existed for about as long as SkillSoft has existed, and it has always played an extremely important role in driving the company’s direction and the products we bring to market.  Every year we have a mix of first-timers and customers who are returning for their third or fourth or fifth time. 

Café is like a big focus group in some respects.  We divide customers into groups and discuss various topics. I happen to be a big believer in focus groups because I think there is no substitute for hearing from customers in their own words.  So often companies become ensconced in their own jargon and it may be completely different from the language their customers speak.  There is only one cure for that, and it’s getting out there and hearing what they have to say, directly from their very mouths.

When I started with SkillSoft six years ago, my first day was at a Café.  I remember the day evolving the way large group events often do, with some awkward silence in the morning, and by the afternoon, opinions were flying and conversations were bubbling up on unplanned topics.  Moderators were being challenged to keep discussions within time limits and people stuck around at the close of the event to talk to their colleagues about things that were important to them.

Over the years the format has evolved a bit, and the topics have also changed.  Back then the clients were responsible for taking notes in the breakout sessions and reporting back to the larger group.  The thought was that this gave them more buy-in.  While this may have been true, some felt that it was kind of like inviting someone over to dinner and making them do the dishes.  So now a SkillSoft person keeps the notes and delivers the PowerPoint, but the intent is still to reflect what the customers have said, in their own words.

The topics are much more far ranging as well.  That first Café I attended revolved largely around which course topics SkillSoft should be developing.  In next week’s meeting we’ll talk about the evolving role of courseware, but we’ll also discuss mobile learning, social learning and the future of games and simulations.  And I’m sure there will be some topics no one anticipated.

What I remember most fondly about Cafés of the past are the evening events where we got to know each other on a more personal level.  In 2004 the Yankees and Red Sox were locked in a heated post-season battle, and we were scheduled to board a dinner cruise in the San Francisco harbor.  TVs were brought in to appease die-hard fans on both sides, and that may go down as the loudest dinner in Café history (the Red Sox broke their 86-year championship drought that year, but I’m not saying the two events are directly related). 

Another memorable night was the songwriter’s dinner in Nashville, TN.  I’m not a huge country music fan, but hearing about the inner workings of the music industry was fascinating.  And after a couple of the songs touched on topics close to our hearts, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

So perhaps this is a fitting way to kick off SkillSoft’s entry into the world of blogging.  Our hope is to extend the conversation to more people, and to keep it going throughout the year.  I’m optimistic we can do this, but it will never replace the experience of gathering in a room and listening to what people have to say, in their own words.

By: Julie Ogilvie