GUIDELINES FOR TRAINING DESIGNERS AND SUPERVISORS

Training programme and material

This training programme with corresponding material has been designed to support building environmental management system (EMS) for industrial facility. The length of the programme is one week, which is divided into eight training sessions. Of course, the training period can be longer and organised according to possibilities of the staff to attend training. Each session has a special role according to trainees. For example, during the first session Managerial Commitment the key issue is that the top management will concretely express their commitment for building EMS.

The training material is a frame for training workshop and an access for trainees into further reading. The latter issue is important because during one week it is impossible to train EMS specialists. The idea is that trainees receive initial preparedness to increase their knowledge during building process and later.

General training targets

Considering that training attendants have educational and professional basis in science, engineering and business administration and economics, the general training targets can be defined as follows:

• to provide participants with necessary approaches, basic information and professional definitions on EMS for motivation, commitment and increase of EMS building capabilities,
• to give knowledge basis for on-the-job trainers and internal auditors, and
• to support for identification of on-site aspects and characteristics for EMS building.

Key training aspects

The program designer and key supervisors must in the first place to make themselves familiar with production process and corresponding products and raw materials as well as various emissions, wastes and other environmental impacts of the industrial facility. The first purpose is to gain information for tailoring the EMS training. The second purpose is to identify subjects for case studies and exercises. For example, case studies on ecoeffiency based on material and energy savings and an increase of marketable products would be most effective to show benefits of EMS.

Considering adult training workshop, it is most important to use interactive teaching and learning methods. Experiences and knowledge of trainees should be utilized as much as possible.

If the training language is not mother language for the trainees and supervisors, this due to different idioms and metaphors and corresponding jargon may lead conceptual difficulties during the training. Supervisors and possible interpreters should beforehand identify this kind of potential difficulties. For example, it may become necessary to translate basic definitions into trainees` own language.

Trainees

For tailoring the training programme, it is important to survey professional duties of the company staff. This information linked to various duties during building EMS should be basis to group staff for attending separate training sessions. Special attention should be paid to selection of the future internal auditors, who should attend training from the very beginning.

Although the training programme has been design to support building EMS of the particular company, it might be beneficial to offer an opportunity for the local environmental authority to attend at least some training sessions. Local environmental and risk communication is one important issue which belongs to both the company and the authorities.

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