NIOSH Mining Safety and Health Research

The U.S. mining workforce is undergoing dramatic changes. An entire cohort of miners in the current workforce is nearing retirement. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey for 2003 shows that, while 38.6% of employees throughout all industries are over 44 years old, 56.7% of metal ore workers and 55.1% of coal mine workers are in that age category. Even in the youngest segment of the industry - nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 39.7% of the workforce is over 44 years old. This age distribution is out of proportion with other industries, as shown below. Replacement of these employees will require an influx of new miners.

Given the U.S. Energy Information Agency´s projection that current levels of coal mining labor will need to be maintained, the aging miners of 2004 will soon be replaced by another cohort of young and inexperienced workers. Younger, inexperienced coal miners have a much greater risk of being injured than those with experience, a trend that has been repeatedly documented during the past 20 years. Thus, it is very important that new miners be well-trained. The indoctrination of a large number of new workers into an industry that has changed significantly in terms of technology is a great concern to our stakeholders. Training new miners would not necessarily be a problem if the work of the miner was very simple and easy to define. However, the dynamic and technologically sophisticated nature of the mining environment necessitates large sets of skills that involve an array of proficiencies; the key ones are good technical skills matched with judgment and decision-making. The development of expertise is complex and takes time. A key question is the amount of time required to develop miners´ expertise. The acceleration of learning and skill development can reduce injury and illness risk to these new workers, who, as has already been established, will otherwise get hurt at a much higher rate than their more experienced counterparts. Experienced miners will likely be the avenue and key resource for teaching important production and safety skills to miners who are new to the industry. How these experienced workers teach new workers and what they use as a “roadmap” or training outline for teaching and evaluating skills is very important, as it will likely set the tone for how quickly and how well new workers learn skills that can benefit both safety and production.

Two goals of the "Education and Training for an Evolving Workforce" project address the training needed by the industry´s current demographic profile: (1) to develop procedures that can ensure consistent health and safety messages to miners during workforce transitions and (2) to develop a protocol for capturing and transferring the knowledge of experienced miners to new hires. PRL researchers are helping the mining industry facilitate the transfer of skills and knowledge to new workers via two important avenues.

Job Training Analysis

In collaboration with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), equipment manufacturers, and mining companies, researchers are developing, testing, and revising a process for capturing and sharing the knowledge of experienced equipment operators. Job training analysis (JTA) is an efficient way of gathering information and knowledge from experienced workers in order to develop a plan for training those who are new to the job. The JTA process is based on extensive military research related to instructional systems design (ISD). The ISD process requires an extensive front-end analysis of "training (performance) needs" in order to develop functional specifications for a training program. NIOSH and MSHA have been working to refine, simplify, and test a less time-intensive process for conducting JTAs for mine equipment operator jobs. Safety and health are two key considerations in training new equipment operators. Production, maintenance, and crew coordination are the other key considerations in the mining JTA process.

The JTA process involves three activities: (1) planning, (2) a 1- to 3-day workshop, and (3) followup. Analysis of a specific job is completed during a JTA workshop. Safety and production issues are included in the analysis. Information developed is useful to help structure skills training for someone who is new to the job. The outcome of the workshop is a training outline - a worksheet. Information on the worksheet is based on experienced workers sharing their knowledge about how a job might be done and coming to agreement on the relative importance of job tasks and why those tasks are important. The more critical the job task, the more important it is that it be performed to standard.

Experienced workers are essential to the JTA process. They include not only those having a stake in the job at the mine site (equipment operators, mechanics, and supervisors), but also outside experts (e.g., technical representatives of equipment manufacturers and health and safety researchers). One purpose of the JTA process is to provide job content information so that it can be presented in a logical fashion during on-the-job training (OJT). Various publications are being written to document the JTA process.

Gathering information to help plan for a job training analysis of the forklift operator´s job at a Morton Salt facility, Weeks Island, Louisiana.

On-the-Job Training Program

The second means by which NIOSH researchers are helping the mining industry facilitate the transfer of skills and knowledge to new workers is by efforts to enhance OJT programs. Researchers are working with RAG Pennsylvania Services Corp. to develop guidelines for formalizing an OJT program and a workshop to teach coaching skills to OJT trainers. A document containing advice for those who are tasked with developing or managing an OJT program is being prepared. The first part of the document discusses things to think about when developing a formal OJT program. For example, decisions need to be made about who will be conducting training, what material will be covered, and how long training is expected to last. When establishing a structured OJT program, the following should be considered:

• Selecting and preparing coaches
• Working with supervisors for successful implementation
• Developing and/or selecting training materials
• Setting trainee prerequisites
• Evaluating performance
• Granting company certifications to coaches and/or trainees

A project team member facilitates a job training analysis workshop for Morton Salt.

A program structure based on coaching is suggested. Materials are presented that can be used to train OJT coaches and to help trainees as they go through the learning process. These materials can be combined with the materials from a JTA to create training manuals for specific jobs.

The OJT coaching workshop will be tested by RAG Pennsylvania Services with groups of prospective OJT trainers and supervisors in the spring and summer of 2004. Based on these tests, the workshop materials will be revised. Train-the-trainer workshops will be developed by PRL researchers to help other safety and health professionals conduct the OJT coaching workshops to train personnel at their mines. The train-the-trainer workshops will be held at locations throughout the country during FY05. Various publications will document and supplement the information to be presented at these OJT coaching workshops.