Andreas Kilchör

Another three weeks of interesting lecturing had happened February/March 2016, after my first time in 2015. I was invited to teach Occupational Health and Safety to the third year students. During the first two weeks, the days were divided into four lessons per day, while the third week was spent on excursions, each lasting a whole day.

The classrooms of the new EHS school building are very modern with all the necessary infrastructure. Lecturing was easier than last year, because I knew by experience what works well and what doesn’t. Every day the theory that had been taught earlier was put into practice with exercises and case studies because. As in Switzerland, great value is placed on practice-oriented lessons at NUST. Students benefitted very well, because the level of knowledge was high. Implementation into daily life has to be improved.

Visiting the workshop of the department of technology was also a key aspect of my course, since many of the students had never seen inside a workshop before. This was important, as my lessons also focused on maintenance and repair, in addition to occupational health and safety, with regard to the production of goods and services. During the third week, we visited many companies. Students met all kind of examples; good ones with very high OHS standards like in a gold mine or a concrete factory on one hand and on the other hand companies with very poor standards (not to be named here).

There were plenty of subjects after visits to be discussed with the focus on practice-related aspects regarding occupational health and safety. These visits helped the students understand how the theory was implemented in real life situations and at the same time provided an insight into their future areas of work.

It was important for me to show the students international standards, so that they would later be able to implement their theoretical knowledge into practice. Again, I received a warm welcome and lots of openness from NUST students and staff.