News Release:Major Scottish organisations support innovative training

Thursday 6 May 2010

Scotland’s major construction industry organisations have joined forces with the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Scotland to help provide affordable, theatre-based safety training.

Theatre-based training company AKT Productions is touring Scotland with its play ‘Terminal’ – and thanks to the support it’s receiving, anyone can benefit from the training.

The Scottish branches of IOSH have come together to support the tour as IOSH Scotland, joining forces with:

• Scotland’s three largest construction trade bodies: the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) (Scotland), the Scottish Building Federation and the Federation of Master Builders

• Major client organisations Scottish Water and Scottish Water Solutions

• Major construction training organisations Construction Skills (formerly CITB) and the Scottish Civil Engineering Construction Training Group

• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which is supporting the tour through its ‘Working Well Together’ initiative.

AKT’s theatre-based approach includes workshop sessions where reconstructions of large-scale incidents are performed by its team of professional actors. In between the scenes, there are expertly-facilitated audience discussions of what happened and why.

“It is certainly an innovative way to get the health and safety message across, and one that’s proved highly entertaining and successful,” said Alan Watt, chief executive of CECA (Scotland).

In fact, when AKT performed ‘Terminal’ in Cumbernauld last year for IOSH and CECA (Scotland), the performances were so successful that both organisations wanted to make them available to audiences across Scotland – and many more of the country’s major construction industry organisations pledged their support too.

As a result, AKT is back by popular demand this year, performing at the following venues:

The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen on 11 May

Inverness College, Inverness on 12 May

Cumbernauld Theatre, Cumbernauld on 13 May

A unique event
The phenomenal support for the tour, which enables tickets to be sold at a cost-effective price, makes this a unique event.

For Federation of Master Builders director for Scotland Graham Barn, there was no question about whether to get involved. “Health and safety should be paramount to all SME builders,” he said. “Behavioural safety is a unique and novel way of getting the message through, that health and safety is everyone’s responsibility.”

“We’re really pleased to be able to give our backing and support to this initiative,” said Michael Levack, chief executive of the Scottish Building Federation. “The behavioural safety training on offer helps to root out risky behaviour and bad habits in the workplace – and to put best practice front and centre in the minds of those workers who attend the productions.  When it comes to health and safety, complacency is a major cause of accidents. Anyone working in the construction industry, regardless of the job they do or their level of experience, will have something to learn from these workshops. I’d urge as many as possible to take advantage of the opportunity to go along.”

“We often hear about workplace accidents that could have been prevented,” said Alan Kirkwood, chair of IOSH Scotland. “One workplace injury is one too many, but if we learn the lessons of previous incidents, we can at least help to prevent future tragedies. By showing people what happened in the months and days leading up to real workplace incidents, AKT puts its audience in the thick of the action and helps them to understand how their attitudes and choices can influence events.”

AKT facilitator Sue Briggs said that a theatre-based approach appeals across a broad range of learning styles. “We find that people can engage with interpersonal issues quickly and effectively,” she said. “The stories we perform are drawn from meticulous research and published material, featuring some of the key players involved, from the highest profile to those unknown to the general public. We want to look as objectively as possible at what happened and the events leading up to it, so we can learn from it and evaluate our own safety performance, attitudes, culture and leadership.”

Tickets are priced at just £25 plus VAT, and bookings for the tour can be placed on the Intelligent Events website.

Interview opportunity – AKT facilitator Sue Briggs

AKT Productions facilitator and psychologist, Sue Briggs, will be available for press interviews following each performance.

Notes to editors

About IOSH

IOSH is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals. Representing members in 85 countries, we’re the world’s biggest professional health and safety organisation. We set standards, and support, develop and connect our members with resources, guidance, events and training. We’re the voice of the profession, and campaign on issues that affect millions of working people. IOSH was founded in 1945 and is a registered charity with international NGO status.

Media Enquiries
Jeremy Waterfield, IOSH media manager, on +44 (0)116 257 3252 or +44 (0)7976 604715 or by email.

About AKT Productions
AKT Productions Limited is the UK's premier provider of theatre-based learning resources. With an unequalled track-record of delivery, AKT has been developing high quality learning and development programmes for over 10 years.

AKT works with clients to create unique learning and development courses. Each training intervention is designed to the client's own specification.

In addition to skilful facilitation and tuition, AKT uses a range of techniques such as role play, theatre and video to ensure that participants find learning memorable, engaging and effective.