Centre for Construction Safety and Well-being (CCSW)

The Centre for Construction Safety and Well-being (CCSW) was established through an industry partnership between the University of Newcastle and construction company Hansen Yuncken and is located in the university’s School of Architecture and Built Environment. The Centre will contribute towards the academic knowledge base for the benefit of the whole construction industry with its aim to not only provide short-medium lessons for construction industry health and safety management but to also identify ways in which to enhance health and safety knowledge and skill development for future generations of construction management graduates. Greater health and safety literacy and skills application integrated into construction management tertiary education will enable a better understanding of the role of a site supervisor, site manager, site engineer and project manager. This level of health and safety education will complement those skills developed in industry and have the capacity to enable greater consistency in applying best practice approaches to site management and achieving better health and safety outcomes right across the industry. This industry partnership is one of the outcomes of the successful Enforceable Undertaking between Hansen Yuncken (HY) and SafeWork NSW.

The Centre will provide a base for investing in applied skills development for health and safety leadership, site management and assurance activity by:

  • fostering greater connections between industry and academia through practical site-based research.
  • supporting continuous improvement in the construction industry through research activities evaluating specific learning and hazard management interventions and determining which types of interventions have greater health, safety, and wellbeing impact; and
  • taking lessons learnt from site-based research to inform continuous improvement of the construction management undergraduate curriculum so that students have greater practical applied skills for safety leadership before they commence work in the industry.