Project Plan for Needs Assessment
Completion date:
Objectives:
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Current occupational challenges for the SH&E professional
Future changes to the SH&E profession
Current and future professional development needs of the SH&E professional
Composition of the markets for safety certifications
Current and future need for certificate programs
Education topics of greatest value to the SH&E professional
Strategy:
Conduct three separate surveys to gain the insight of recognized authorities, visionaries
and members. Conduct educator and visionary surveys first, validate results with a
small selected focus group and then use the focus group findings as the basis for
surveying the membership.
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Survey 1 - Members to determine demographics, continuing education interests, current
job status, career goals, certification status or plans, ability to attend classroom
education, preferred method of education delivery and topics considered valuable to
their occupational efforts.
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Survey 2 - Selected instructors to determine perception of continuing education trends
for safety, continuing education and training needs of safety professionals, and
education topics being requested by students.
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Survey 3 – Thought leaders/recognized authorities to determine career needs and
expectations of safety professionals now and in 10 years and continuing education and
training needs for safety professionals now and in 10 years.
Process:
1. Identify thought leaders and recognized authorities on the subject of SH&E. Using this
group, conduct survey #3 and accumulate results.
2. Select SH& E educators, conduct survey #2 and accumulate results.
3. Using results of surveys 2 and 3, develop assumptions.
4. Conduct a focus group of 25 selected visionaries/recognized authorities to react to the
assumptions made from the information in surveys 2 and 3.
5. Based on the focus group results, produce a survey instrument and conduct survey #1.
6. Report survey results to the Council on Professional Development.
Resources
The Value of the Profession initiative from CoPA contains a survey that may contain some ideas
for the questionnaire.
2000 and 2004 Needs Assessments
Research for needs assessments that have been conducted by other associations