Effective Approaches to Education and Training for Underserved Populations

There are a number of challenges to education and training interventions that aim to reduce occupational health disparities. Structural barriers often discourage worker-initiated action to advocate for improved safety and health conditions in workplaces even when workers have adequate knowledge of risks. Cultural differences also need to be considered in the design and implementation of education and training interventions.

The paper will focus on effective and promising solutions to meeting the unique challenges of conducting education and training with populations that experience occupational health disparities. The paper will give an overview of a range of training methods available and will discuss the factors to be considered in selecting a training approach given a specific context in the workplace or community. Strategies for using education and training to facilitate changes in workplaces (research to practice)—including changes in worker knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as well as work organization and other structural elements—will be explored. Techniques for creating education and training interventions that are culturally relevant and appropriate with racially, ethnically, and economically diverse populations will also be addressed.

The paper will also examine issues of evaluation of training and educational interventions addressing diverse populations. A variety of evaluation strategies will be described and analyzed. The paper will examine which evaluation methods have been used successfully and will address how we can improve the evaluation of training and educational approaches.