Abstract:
The management of hazardous materials is a rapidly expanding global concern and the need for Hazardous Materials Management Technicians is increasing to keep up with this demand. During the late 1980's, community and technical colleges began responding to the needs of industry and started developing curriculum for a Hazardous Materials Management Technician program either as part of a certificate or as an associate degree. To provide industry with well-trained technicians, the Department of Labor and Department of Education funded the development of 22 Voluntary Occupational Skills Standard projects. Hazardous Materials was one of the funded projects. After the development of the Skills Standard, community colleges that were part of the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education, (PETE) consortium that had hazardous materials programs were surveyed to determine if their curriculum covered all of the skills listed in the standard. The purpose of this research was to determine if the curriculum currently used by the three types of PETE schools, (certificate and degree, degree only, and certificate only) covers all of the identified areas in the newly developed national Hazardous Materials Management Technician Skills Standards. When the results were reviewed, 95.4% of all the respondents indicated that the students would have at least a practical application level of understanding for all items listed in the Skills Standard. Based on the results of this study, almost three-fourths (31 of 43 respondents or 72.1%) of the schools indicated that an overall mastery level of understanding was achieved by the graduates of the PETE hazmat programs. This indicates that when students complete a PETE hazmat curriculum program, their level of understanding is at the top level on the Likert scale for 72.1% of the skills listed in the Skills Standard. The combination certificate and degree program indicated the highest level of mastery at 77.8%, with the degree only programs indicating a 70.0% level of mastery. The certificate only programs indicated that 50% of the students would have accomplished the mastery level upon graduation.
