Construction workers instruction and training

Despite technological and economical advancement, the practice of construction work is still affected by a high rate of serious and even deadly injuries. A wide set of normative rules faces the problem by constraining environmental condition and workers´ practice so as to reduce risk exposure and impact. However, the effectiveness and even the practical enforcement of these rules basically depends on workers´ capability to autonomously perceive risks and assume safe behaviors. Professional instruction and training play a central role in the achievement of this worker attitude. Several types of documents on the practice of safety are commonly employed to support both the scholar instruction of young workers within professional schools and the autonomous or decentralized training of active workers. These documents usually combine drawings and photographs, and sometimes video, but they do not include any medium allowing for an interactive approach to information analysis. The main objective of the VECWIT project (Virtual Environments for Construction Workers´ Instruction and Training) is to experiment with and evaluate the suitability of interactive 3D graphics as a new supporting tool for safety training and instruction in the operational context of construction workplaces. By allowing for an interactive approach, 3D graphics is expected to attract and stimulate the attention of young workers, by enabling a direct and autonomous exploration of information about safe environmental and behavioral conditions in the workplace