Safety standards and compliance
I saw a post recently about the value of formal education in safety — and it got me thinking. It’s great when these conversations come up. They push us to reflect on our own paths and the assumptions that come with them.
The post talked about how safety professionals need a broad base of knowledge — law, psychology, ergonomics, communication, and so on — and that formal education helps build that foundation. I don’t disagree. I just see it from the other direction.
If I had to choose between formal education and field experience, I’d choose field experience — every single time. But I don’t want to have to choose. We need both. Education teaches systems and laws. Experience teaches empathy — the kind that comes from being cold, sore, tired, and still expected to get the job done.
No one shows up to work planning to be unsafe. Workers don’t lack care — they just live in a different reality of risk than most safety professionals do. We tell people to “work safely,” but what we’re really asking them to do is two things: 1️⃣ Change habits they’ve built over years.
2️⃣ Take on paperwork that feels unnatural to people who work with their hands. When your day revolves around tools, being handed a form can feel like asking an office worker to pour concrete — it’s not resistance, it’s mismatch.
If you’ve got someone who’s come up through the field — who knows the work, the weather, the grind — then send them to school. Give them the structure and systems training to support their natural leadership.
And if you’ve got a 23-year-old fresh out of BCIT or another program, hand them a pair of steel-toed boots and send them to the field for six months. Let them see what the job actually feels like before they start writing policies about it.
Disclosure for context: I come from the field side. I started as a labourer, became a carpenter’s apprentice, moved into safety, and worked my way up — from site orientations and toolbox talks, to managing programs and audits, to serving as Safety Director across multiple companies.
Eventually I helped design safety systems for industry associations and implemented safety management software. I’ve seen every layer of this profession from the ground up. And I wish I had more formal education — there are things I would have designed better if I’d had that foundation. I have a bias. It comes from my own path, and that’s okay.
If you’ve taken a different path, I’d love to hear about it: 🔹 Built your career through field experience alone? 🔹 Started with formal education? 🔹 Combined both? How did that path shape the way you see safety today?