Georgia Tech Launches State’s First Professional Master’s Degree in Occupational Safety and Health

ATLANTA - January 31, 2017 - Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE) has partnered with the Georgia Tech College of Design and its School of Building Construction to offer a Professional Master’s degree in Occupational Safety and Health (PMOSH), the first of its kind in Georgia. The program is designed to prepare leaders in the field with the knowledge and skills to manage complex safety and health programs. It will be delivered in collaboration with Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

“This Professional Master’s degree in Occupational Safety and Health reflects how close we and the School of Building Construction faculty are to the building industry, and how as academics, we can address the needs of builders and building managers,” said Georgia Tech College of Design Dean and John Portman Chair, Steven P. French. “The same changes in technology that have impacted how architects and engineers design buildings are also affecting how construction safety specialists do their jobs. It’s exciting to lead the state in creating safer environments for people who work in the spaces we design.”

The professional master’s program was developed in response to a growing need in the state for a highly qualified workforce in the occupational safety and health (OS&H) field. According to the Georgia Department of Labor, employment for OS&H specialists is projected to grow 7.3 percent from 2012 to 2022, and only 18 percent of safety related professionals have a master’s degree. In 2013 alone, 2,753 positions in this field required a master’s degree, an increase of 60 percent since 2010.

“As the professional education division of Georgia Tech, we have the expertise and learning technologies to design and deliver educational programs to respond to specific workforce challenges,” said Nelson Baker, dean, Georgia Tech Professional Education. “This degree answers the need for advanced education in this field. It will contribute to improved safety and competitive advantage for state companies, and will be an asset for the state of Georgia.”

PMOSH is an academically rigorous degree featuring faculty experts from the College of Design’s School of Building Construction as well as leading industry professionals from GTRI, where the Georgia Tech OSHA Training Institute Education Center was established in 1992. “The OSHA Training Institute Education Center has made a lasting impact on practitioners of safety and health programs in the southeastern United States,” said Joe Brooks, deputy director, Georgia Tech Research Institute. “This new Professional Master’s in Occupational Safety and Health program will provide leaders in the occupational safety and health field with a deep technical background and strong applications practice, helping to drive state and national growth.”

Geared to working professionals in manufacturing, process, construction and related industries, the program aims to prepare safety specialists for positions of leadership in the OS&H field. PMOSH features a management component that addresses leadership and communication as well as business aspects of OS&H management in addition to fundamentals of OS&H and related standards, and technology and its implementation to support OS&H.

The program incorporates case studies and practical projects that require learners to solve real-world problems in this field. Delivery of PMOSH includes online instruction and one-week, on-campus sessions three times during the two-year program, which begins in the 2017 academic year. Learn more about the Professional Master’s in Occupational Safety and Health.
 

About Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE)

Georgia Tech Professional Education, an academic division of the Georgia Institute of Technology, offers professional development courses, certificate programs, online master’s and professional master’s degrees in a variety of formats to meet the needs of working professionals and industry partners in STEM and business fields worldwide. We educate over 22,000 individual learners representing close to 3,000 companies annually.

About Georgia Tech College of Design

Georgia Tech’s College of Design takes a research-driven approach to what is clearly an art at traditional design schools. We think it's important to understand how technology enables better design, and how to fuse that technology into buildings, products, lifestyles, cities, regions, and even healthcare. Our design is a particularly creative approach to solving real-world problems.
Visit Georgia Tech College of Design. 

About Georgia Tech Research Institute

The Georgia Tech Research Institute solves complex problems through innovative and customer-focused research and education. Established in 1934, GTRI is Georgia Tech’s non-profit, applied research arm with more than 2,000 staff, 15 locations, eight laboratories and annual contract awards exceeding $350 million.
Learn more at Georgia Tech Research Institute.