Open AccessAn Evaluation of the Participatory Action‐oriented Training (PAOT) Program in Small Enterprises in Vietnam
Author(s) -
Nguyen Toai Phuong,
Khai Ton That
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of occupational health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 59
ISSN - 1348-9585
DOI - 10.1539/joh.13-0063-fs
Subject(s) - productivity , business , factory (object oriented programming) , participatory action research , intervention (counseling) , small and medium sized enterprises , work (physics) , training (meteorology) , citizen journalism , occupational safety and health , operations management , control (management) , nursing , medicine , engineering , economic growth , computer science , economics , management , finance , mechanical engineering , physics , pathology , meteorology , world wide web , programming language
An Evaluation of the Participatory Action-oriented Training (PAOT) Program in Small Enterprises in Vietnam: Toai Phuong NGUYEN, et al . The Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Birmingham, UK—Objectives Participatory Action‐Oriented Training (PAOT) has been known as a practical training methodology for improving health and safety at work, particularly for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Our hypothesis is that PAOT is a better approach than a traditional local method, and the objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of PAOT and to make suggestions for improvement. Methods An intervention was performed for one year at 20 volunteer SMEs. PAOT was applied in 10 factories, and a traditional local method was applied in the other 10 SMEs as a control. Two cross‐sectional studies were performed consisting of a questionnaire and environmental measurements. Data were also collected on the number of factory improvements, productivity, worker income, accidents, and health costs. Results There were significant improvements among the intervention factories in terms of work environment, number of improvements and health costs between the pre‐ and post‐intervention phases. In terms of productivity, significant increases were seen in the civil engineering, metal, garment, and rice mill industries in the intervention group, while the metal casting and, garment industries in the control group also showed significant increase in productivity. Conclusions The findings support the idea that a PAOT program produces better outcomes in SMEs. It is recommended that a PAOT program be widely applied to SMEs to improve health and safety. A fuller examination could be obtained with more environmental measurements taken over a much longer period of time, together with data on sickness absence and accidents that have been independently validated.