Increasing students’ safety awareness in a teaching hotel

Abstract

During the past years the attention for safety and health at work has increased, partly through the influence of European law and labour agreements and by acknowledging the huge economic impact of accidents and calamities. It is notable that companies are more and more aware that it is necessary to put more energy into promoting safety awareness among their staff. Since the International Hospitality Management School is training students for future leading positions within the hospitality sector, it is of the utmost importance that safety competences are included in the curriculum. Particularly the four-star teaching hotel, which is run by students under supervision of practical instructors, offers a perfect context for training these safety competences and increasing students’ safety awareness.

The following problem statement was taken to guide the research: What is the impact of safety training on the safety competences (knowledge, awareness and behaviour) of students working in the kitchen of the teaching hotel? In total, 140 students from the first, second and third years have been involved in this study, which was conducted in the kitchen department of Stenden Hotel. The results of this study indicate that training does improve safety competences of students. Since this study was limited to the kitchen, we recommend replication in other departments and other institutions. Next we suggest additional research to figure out which educational format is most effective and efficient in bringing about a significant change in safety awareness and safety-related behaviour.

Keywords: Safety, awareness, responsibility, influence, training, unconscious capability