Al Naboodah Group Enterprises (ANGE) launched a visual impact training programme launched earlier this year at a location close to its headquarters in Al Awir, Dubai in order to strengthen the awareness of its 14,000-strong construction workforce around health and safety issues, and so far the initiative is being received well by the industry at large — drawing admiration from both Dubai Airports and the Expo 2020 management team.
ANGE’s visual impact training, or industrial theatre, involves the use of 45-minute theatrical performances of health and safety scenarios to highlight the importance of safety on the job site by conveying how certain behaviours can lead to risk, and how, in turn, risk can be avoided.
Robert Munn, GM for safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ) at ANGE, explains: “We have a team based permanently at the training centre, and they have around 25 different scenarios that they act out. It’s not language specific, so it doesn’t matter where you’re from. You can sit, you can watch it.”
ANGE’s team of six involved in the visual training programme have also been drawn from the ranks of the group’s former foremen and chargehands, and integrate their experience of what happens on site with elements of slapstick humour to provide a relatable performance for the audience.
The facility at ANGE’s training centre includes the use of props fabricated by the team that include a wooden telehandler that is operated by pedal, but comes complete with reversing lights and alarms, as well as a model tower crane that can slew, move its hook block and lift up and down.
Munn comments: “They’re very talented people: not only are they good at what they in the training, but they make all their own props, because they’re all pretty good carpenters and tradesmen as well.”
ANGE recently took its visual impact team on a trip to Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) – which is responsible for the ongoing development of Dubai’s airports – to provide a demonstration of the training in action.
Munn added: “When we went to DAEP to show them our visual impact, it was as part of a five million LTI-free manhours celebration, so everyone was there: the senior project management, the client, consultants, and it was around plant and vehicles, and their movement around people.
“DAEP thought it was fantastic, and we’ve also taken it to other projects where our clients are really interested in it. In fact, the Expo guys want to use our team up there to do some training for them.”
The initiative is one of many measures that ANGE is currently putting in place to tackle the behaviour of its operators on site before accidents occur, as well as to emphasise the leading indicators of accidents, including near misses, as opposed to lost-time incidents (LTIs) and other lagging indicators.
In terms of the lagging indicators, Munn note that ANGE saw just seven accidents that qualified as LTIs in 2016, across 50 million manhours of operations.
For more on ANGE’s approach to health and safety, read the August issue of PMV Middle East.
