I was really excited and over the moon, when my name was announced as one of the two winners of first International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) – International Labour Organization (ILO) Master Fellowship for the Master in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) programme at the International Training Centre of the ILO Turin School of Development and University of Turin in Italy. I haven’t heard about the programme before the 31st ICOH in Seoul, and I wasn’t looking to get myself to do another Master. You see, I have already three masters’ and a PhD degree. However, I was really glad that I took on the challenge as my sabbatical.
The Master of OSH is one of the most interesting and exciting programme that I have ever taken. It was not just about the content of the course, but about all the interesting and exciting people I met on the way. The content was really good, the course which was divided into three components was really an innovative idea.
My journey started in September 2016 with the first part of the programme. It was the distal learning, component that was delivered online. There were self-learning materials, assignments and discussions with tutors and fellow course mates. The tutors, Mr Roman Lityakov and Mr Davide Bosio, was really helpful in familiarising us with the online platform and guiding us through the learning materials.
The next stage was the most exciting component where all of us made our journey to Turino in Piedmont north of Italy, when we were finally able to meet up with all our course mates; Justine from Australia, Kamrul and Soma from Bangladesh, Melony from Barbados, Neo and Moleele from Botswana, Laura from Brazil, Dawn from the British Virgin Islands, Giannina from Chile, Francis and Jonathan from Ghana, Vidya and Priyanka from India, Janice from Jamaica, Carmel from Jordan, Eric from Kenya, Jamileh from Lebanon, Habib from Liberia, Fernando from Peru, Patrick from Rwanda, Dalia from Saint Lucia, Gavin from Singapore, and Soha from Sudan.
There was the serious part where we sit in classes to reinforce what we had learned in the distal learning component, and discover how OSH works from the International level and the ILO perspective. There was the exciting part where we visited many places to learn about OSH. The emotional part where we learn to work with friends from all over the world. The fun part when we have time to cycle, shop, eat, tour, play, and cook together. The sad part was when we all realise that three months have passed us by and we are all about to leave for home. We felt both depressed and happy all at once, depressed, having to bid farewell to all our friends, and happy to meet our family that we left at home.
The final part of the course was the dissertation, which I will have to leave it for another day to tell you about it.
The important thing about this Master was not learning from the teachers or the visits only, but learning from each other. Learning about how OSH in each country differ, and how we could use each other experience to improve OSH in our own country.
Thank you, Ms Liza Zambernardi, Ms Daniela Trombetta and Mr Felix Martin-Daza for attending to all our request and making life easier for us in Turin.
Addio Torino, fino a quando ci incontriamo di nuovo!
Article written by Victor Hoe
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