When the Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative (UPSLI) was first launched, it was noted that in addition to providing education to chemical engineering students and faculty at four-year institutions, AIChE should create a complementary program for two year college instructors. After active discussion among the AIChE Industry Advisory Council and CCPS over the last 12 months, broad interest and desire to extend process safety education to the two-year college level was confirmed.
Integrating Process Safety Management (PSM) principles into the curriculum will prepare the future workforce and is critical to our ability to provide practical, and real-world understanding of today’s operating environments.”, said Dan Coombs, AIChE Foundation Trustee and Chair – Industry Advisory Council.
Thanks to LyondellBasell leading the pilot with both in-kind and monetary contributions, we convened for a three-day pilot at LyondellBasell Center for Petrochemical, Energy, & Technology (CPET) at San Jacinto College and the LyondellBasell Channelview Plant.
The program was unique in that it hosted both San Jacinto College instructors and LYB employees (who graduated from San Jacinto) which provided real insight into the skills with which they graduated vs what they learned on the job and this helped identify gaps and how we can better work together to improve process safety instruction in the classroom ensuring work force preparedness.
Trey Hamm, Adjunct Professor of Process Technology – San Jacinto College said, “It was eye opening to see, and critical to know what and how (and when) we teach PSM to ensure all students leave trained and knowledgeable to go into the field prepared”.
“Integrating Process Safety Management (PSM) principles into the curriculum for process, mechanical, and I&E technician programs will prepare the future workforce and is critical to our ability to provide practical, and real-world understanding of today’s operating environments ensuring we are successful in our goal to live in a world free of process safety incidents”, said Dan Coombs, AIChE Foundation Trustee and Chair – Industry Advisory Council.
Learnings and feedback are being gathered and will inform future programs. To learn how you can partner with the AIChE Foundation today, reach out to Natalie Krauser. Together, we can engineer impact.
