The University of South Africa (Unisa) Centre for Blended-learning Studies will on April 12 host a neuroscience and safety and wellbeing in the workplace masterclass, led by Nutricula Psychology psychologist Paul Potgieter, on the Unisa science campus, in Pretoria.
The masterclass follows the National Institute for Explosives Technology conference on April 11, which is hosted is collaboration with Unisa’s departments of industrial and organizational psychology, business management and mining engineering and Nutricula Psychology.
Potgieter is the co-founder of the Holistic Safety Programme, which is a scientific approach to worker safety and welfare that considers the impact of psychological and emotional wellness on safety performance.
The programme is funded by the Australian government and builds on research in neuroscience that has found that wellness is defined as whole brain functioning, which has significant impact on the implementation of safety measures.
A panel of experts representing various industry sectors will respond to the masterclass presentation.
Unisa stated that there has been a trend toward scientific approaches to safety, which enables cost savings for companies in high-risk environments, such as the explosives, chemicals and mining industries.