Themes

In the work environment, formal and informal training plays an essential role as a means of contributing to and supporting many technical and organisational changes. While training programmes are often designed for operators to adapt, the studies based on the ergonomic analysis of work have shown they can have another status allowing actors themselves to “appropriate” changes by making the learning activity and work the main focus of the training, and reiterating the relevance of treating the issue of well-being along with the economic and management considerations.
How do changes in the form of employment (development of precarious jobs, or atypical working hours), organisation of work (combined industrial and trade constraints), technologies (increasing use of new technologies of communication and information) transform the practice of training from the viewpoint of the training staff, but also for ergonomists and the way they view the field of training? How have research and practical exercises based on the ergonomic analyses of work, contributed to transform work through training or give clues to the actors in the work environment for them to detect, understand, and take action in a situation that is changing?

- 1 - The relation between training, work and health
The present context of intensification of work and harshening of working conditions calls for a reflection on the relationship between health and work. The construction of health all along the professional course is more than ever an issue. This construction implies acquiring knowledge, individual and team skills, either by means of training programmes or throughout the activity of work. Can the broad issue of work be considered today outside the context of building knowledge and know-how, constructing the experience of workers? Can the conditions under which training is organised be viewed as determining factors of health at the workplace? Can they impact the subsequent elaboration of strategies in relation to health at work?

- 2 - Transmission between beginners and experienced workers
Approaching the question of training through intergenerational relations implies focusing on the central issue of skills and adjustments at work and placing them it perspective with regard to job requirements. What kind of knowledge and skills do different workers hold in the context of a rapidly changing environment in terms of organisation and work tools? Do the present employment issues have an impact on the relations between different generations at work, mutual assistance processes, transmission of knowledge and exchanges at the workplace? What kind of complementarities can the different forms of organisation of work build and preserve?

- 3 - Job trainers
The job of trainers has often been studied from the viewpoint of knowledge transmission, pedagogy and effectiveness of training, but rarely are the constraints these operators are faced with and the resources they have available (whether personal or organisational) taken into account. Consequently, how can the analysis of the work activity contribute to reflect the overall activity of trainers (teaching, but also preparation, evaluation, administration, technical watch etc.) either in its individual or collective dimension? Understanding the trainers’ work activity in broad terms and not only as a teaching activity may also prompt us to ponder over their working conditions as well as the health of operators and their development throughout their professional life. Finally, the public and private dimensions of the trainers’ professional activity refer the method of analysis of work to its different forms of implementation.

- 4 - NICT, learning and teaching activities
New information and communication technologies have deeply impregnated the environment of work and professional training for the past two decades. How are these new tools being integrated into training situations (e-learning, 3D or VR simulations…)? In addition to learning how to use NICTs at work, how and to what extent do they actually change the learning activity of trainees and the professional activity of trainers?
How can an anaysis of the activity of trainers contribute to the designing of NITCs?
The use of NITCs is often shown as beneficial for learning situations: how and by what means do they truly contribute (or not) to ownership of professional knowledge and know-how?

- 5 – Work analysis and training design
Participation of trainers in the analysis of their work activities can form a training framework of its own. Many studies have stressed the positive role of self-confrontation to develop the operators’ skills.
An analysis of the work activity is also a prerequisite to design training modules: does it solely contribute to elaborating the contents of training or does it also allow to perceive training situations, seize the progression of learning or even contribute to designing training tools? In these different contributions to the designing of training courses, how are the end-users taken into account: trainers and trainees?

- 6 – Evaluation of results and impact of training
As we have noted in previous symposiums, research studies and experimentations with training presently relate both to the design and organisation of training courses and to the activity of trainers. If an attempt were made to review and draw a balance of these experiences, what outcome would be expected? How can the progress currently made in our knowledge of training issues – trainers – trainees – work – optimise training and its benefits at the workplace and in the interest of health preservation? How can the knowledge acquired at a training session be evaluated? Can a comparison between an individual’s performance of an identical or equivalent task before and after training provide a relevant evaluation?

- 7 - Introducing the company employees to work analysis
For a number of years now, training of company employees or institutional employees is included in the practice of ergonomics. Training union members to analyse work is one of the aspects covered. It is also being considered in relation to other issues (MSDs, age, psycho-social risks…) and to other actors (HR functions, occupational medicine, engineering,…). The symposium could be an opportunity to take stock of the progress made with this tool of ergonomics, its contents and impacts.

Presentations
All presentations will be published in the proceeding of the IEA 2009 Congress.

Submission and important dates
Abstracts can be submitted at the IEA Congress website (www.iea2009.org)
Please make sure to select the tract EW as a keyword when submitting your paper
Submission of 550 word abstract before November, 15, 2008.
Notification of acceptance : January 1, 2009
Full paper : April 1, 2009.