VPPPA Partners With UAB to Offer Certificate Program

The Voluntary Protection Programs Participants' Association (VPPPA) has partnered with University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to offer the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Excellence in Safety Certificate Program at UAB. The online program allows full-time workers in the safety field to learn the fundamentals of safety best practices and earn the specialized certificate. The program will be offered by the UAB Office of eLearning and Professional Studies beginning June 2013.

"We are very excited to be partnering with UAB in this effort,"says VPPPA Chair Mike Maddox. "We hope that instilling a culture of safety excellence in participants of this certificate program will help spread the principles of VPP to an ever-increasing number of worksites."

The academic program focuses on the four elements of VPP:

• management commitment and employee involvement;
• worksite analysis;
• hazard recognition and control;
• training.

To earn the certificate, students must complete six 3-week courses, which provide academic credit. The program is the first time in VPPPA history that it has partnered with a university to develop and offer courses in best practices for safety and health education.

"UAB is delighted to partner with a world-class professional association like VPPPA, which shares our commitment to push the boundaries of excellence in safety innovation to the highest possible levels," says Martha Bidez, Ph.D., director of UAB's master's level program in Advanced Safety Engineering and Management.

For more information about the program, send an e-mail to asem@uab.edu.