The Research Support 福利在线免费 Directorate (RSSD) together with the Office for Human Resources Management & Development (HRMD) have been working on identifying and delivering training courses of direct relevance to laboratory staff. The main goal is to assist scientific, technical and laboratory staff in order to maintain a high standard of quality in the laboratories across University.
The Chemical Handling Course was organised to serve as a follow-up of the second chemical waste campaign. Furthermore through the Training Needs Analysis that was carried out in 2017, the Office for Human Resources Management & Development and the Research Support 福利在线免费 Directorate identified the need to increase the awareness and knowledge in chemical handling and waste management of laboratory staff.
This course was organised between January to April 2018. It was spread over 16 hours and was split over four modules, each module consisting of a four-hour session. This course provided participants with an overview on chemical handling in laboratories and covered areas in chemical legislation, occupational health and safety, chemical handling and waste management.
In order to cater for the largest amount of participants as possible this course was repeated four times. Approximately 70 members of staff attended for this course, including laboratory officers, system engineers, research support officers and academics.
Mr Francis Micallef, the Managing Director of Specto Limited designed and delivered the course. Mr Micallef is a graduate in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Malta. He has extensive experience in forensic science and the food and chemical industries. Specto Limited was the technical team behind the last two chemical waste campaigns.
Mr Micallef adopted a teaching method which comprised a blend of theoretical and practical sessions since the overarching aim of this training was to have sessions that are as interactive as possible and that would encourage participation and discussion throughout the training. Course material was circulated to the participants for each module.
Strong positive feedback was received by means of an appraisal form which was circulated at the end of the course. Furthermore, by means of these same forms it was noted that many of the participants would like to have more of such courses with additional practical and hands on approach. Participants who have successfully attended for all four modules will be presented with a Certificate of Attendance at a later stage.
We hope that the knowledge and skills gained from this course will serve as the first step in creating a learning culture, which will give rise to productive change in adopting sustainable practices in chemical handling and waste management.
Find out about upcoming events and projects organised by RSSD and upcoming events and various training initiative organised by HRMD.
Stay tuned!
