The one-day risk assessment and management courses were organized in three enterprises in the surroundings of Lusaka. They came as a follow-up to the two 5-day training of trainers’ courses in risk assessment and management held in Lusaka in June 2011 and in the Copperbelt region in October 2011. The objective of the one day enterprise training sessions was two-fold: a) enhance the capacities of the trained trainers in carrying out trainings on risk assessment and management and b) build capacities in the three selected enterprise on how to carry out risk assessment with simple tools and techniques.

The trainers who facilitated the one day courses were chosen among the inspectors from the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Mines who participated in the 5 day courses on risk assessment and management. For each enterprise, groups of three inspectors were created with one team leader. A wrap up meeting was organized at the end of each day of training in order to review the strong and weak points of each of the facilitators and means of improving the agenda, the presentations and improving pedagogical and lecturing skills.

The training sessions were carried out in three enterprises: a) Lafarge Cement Zambia Plc., a company engaged in the manufacture and sale of cement for local and export markets, with 357 workers on the Lusaka facility; b) Trade Kings (Zambia) Limited, a company that counts 926 workers, and is one of Zambia’s major manufacturing companies producing detergents, soaps, nutritious drinks (maheu), a range of sweets and confectionaries; and c) Good Time Steel Company Zambia Limited, the leading manufacturer of reinforcement steel products mainly used in the construction industry, which counts 450 workers.

The morning sessions comprised formal lectures and group work to introduce the concept of risk assessment and its calculator. In the afternoon, participants applied the methodology of hazard spotting and rating to their workplaces: they were divided into groups to carry out a practical risk assessment exercise in one of their warehouses and establish a hierarchy of most urgent risks as well as a series of measures that should be taken to reduce these risks to tolerable levels.

By the end of the three on-site training sessions, a total of 43 workers from three enterprises were trained in risk assessment and management. All participants showed great interest in the training, even though feedback from the training sessions showed that the three enterprises were at different levels of understanding and development in occupational safety and health.

Following these pilot trainings, the OSH directorate of the Ministry of Labour decided that one day risk assessment trainings should be conducted on a regular basis and planned similar courses to be held in 2012. In the beginning of 2012, the OSH Department of the Ministry of Labour already reported a great demand from enterprises to benefit from this type of training.