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Green STRENGTH Sustainability: A Case study OF chemical engineering students

Stanislav Avsec1, Branko Kaui2 1Universtiy of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Slovenia2INITUT, Institute of Information Technology, Slovenia

ContentsTopic of interestGreen Chemistry and jobsEHS area courses developmentMethodology:SampleInstrumentProcedure and data analysisResultsReliability informationBasic descriptivesConclusions

This topic interest us for the following reasonsImportance of chemical engineering sector in GDP and impacts on human health, safety and the environment.Importance of chemical engineering, as an academic discipline, at design and management of biological, chemical and physical processes that enable raw materials to be converted into valuable products.The developed environmentally benign alternative technologies of green chemistry have been proven to be economically superior and function as well as or better than more toxic traditional options.To lead the industry to zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020.Training of specialists who would have a responsible attitude to the country is a focal issue for EU.To estimate a level of green readiness considering STRENGTH model.

Green Chemistry and jobsGreen Chemistry can be defined as the design of chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.The challenge of green chemistry for both academics and industrialists is to devise sustainable strategies that meet the demand for chemical products from an ever-increasing population. Green chemistry addresses the following aspects of manufacturing: to identify renewable feed stocks;to minimize environmental impact;to maximize efficiency and reduce waste;to monitor the fate of potentially harmful chemicals in reactions and in the environment;to find replacements with reduced toxicity and increased biodegradability.

Green Chemistry and jobsChemical Engineers will play an essential role as designers and managers. Green Engineering feeds on a wide variety of disciplines and theories, it is of crucial importance to identify the needs for an specific applying the correct approach to the general design philosophy, to safety, to the chemistry, to the product and to the process and to the auxiliary facilities.The continuous adaptation of green engineering is the very base of sustainability in the chemical and process industry and that is the main reason to feed on all these disciplines.Principles of green engineering cannot be static, because environment, society and economy are dynamic. Chemical Engineers are called to identify, assimilate and study the way in which these disciplines can be included within the design criteria to achieve sustainable solutions.

EHS area courses developmentGreen Engineering is the development and commercialization of industrial processes that are economically feasible and reduce the risk to human health and the environment. Several health and safety aspects were detected which could decrease green economy benefits and scale:Potential for exposure to unknown hazards from new processes and materials,Substitution of chemicals for environmental reasons could result in greater risks to workers, Chemicals obtained from renewable sources can still be toxic, andPotential risks at the recycling stage.

EHS area courses developmentEHS considers environmental protection, occupational health and safety. Its general objectives comprise prevention of incidents or accidents that might result from abnormal operating conditions at manufacturing facilities on the one hand, and reduction of adverse effects on the environment and human health that result from normal operating conditions on the other hand.Professional realization is anticipated within occupations like EHS Specialist; EHS Manager; EHS Coordinator; health and safety analyst, Health and Safety consultant. Employment is expected as well within manufacturing, technology, public and private sectors, chemical, environmental and associated industries in a variety of health, hygiene, safety, fire, food, quality, regulatory, consultancy and related roles.

EHS area courses developmentBy mapping existing competencies in industry, STRENGTH developed 10 courses in EHS area aimed for vocational education and training at both national and international level using mobility scheme procedureSTRENGTH courses: Bio-safety, Chemical safety, Employee safety, Fire safety, Lab safety & Hazardous waste, Industrial hygiene, Radiation safety, General safety, Lab audit program and Global environmental management system.Courses allow systematically development of three main cognitive components: knowledge, skills and wider competences of critical thinking and decision-making by considering the European qualification framework (EQF), and credits system (ECVET) for vocational education and training at EQF level 6 and 7. All ten courses comprise together of 34 European Credits (EC) and allow achievements described with 19 competences for knowledge component, and 14 skill competencies which are condensed in 8 green abilities. All cognitive structures could be obtained both at level 6 and 7 of EQF.

MethodologyImportance of STRENGTH green competences and students' self-assesed achievements in chemical engineering as DVs.Sample: 30 of freshman engineering students, the senior-level counterparts were of 31 students, 61 in total. The participants genders were not evenly distributed: 72.1% (nF = 44) females and 27.9% (nM = 17) males. Freshman students were aged 19 1 year while seniors were aged 23 1 year.Instrument: The survey consists of the 41-items and it is divided into three subscales: knowledge subscale with nineteen items, skills with fourteen, and green abilities with eight items. For the assessment, a 6-point phrase completion scale (0-5) was used. Procedure and data analysis: The data was collected at Cracow University of Technology, in Poland when students attended residential workshops in January 2015. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 22.

ResultsReliability information: strongly reliable instrument Cronbachs alpha>0.9.Descriptives:Perceived importance of Strength green knowledge, skills and abilities is regarded as high (M>2.5-mid-point) at both freshman and senior students.Current level of competences achievement is judged to be poor (M