Daugavpils University

Labour Protection

The principal aim of the professional higher education Master’s study programme „Labour Protection” is to provide students matriculated at Daugavpils University with qualitative education that meets the national needs and complies with the standards of profession, providing the opportunity to acquire theoretical and practical knowledge, to improve research skills and abilities, thus training the students as specialists in labour protection.

To achieve the principal aim, a number of objectives are fulfilled within the framework of the study programme, most significant of which are:

• To provide the specialization for students in the following directions of labour protection: labour protection or safety technology, which is concluded by obtaining professional higher education master’s degree in „Labour Protection”;
• To provide students with the opportunity to qualitatively and successfully acquire the study programmes and to implement the specialization of the study programme by integrating various branches of physics: mechanics, electricity and magnetism, optics, thermodynamics, nuclear physics etc., branches relating to law sciences and labour protection, and emphasizing the interconnection between theory and practice;
• To develop the understanding about the basic principles for shaping the EU and Latvian regional policy and labour protection, by acquiring the basic principles, methods, legislation, taking into consideration the European and world experience and laying emphasis on the connection of the field with the general situation in Latvia and differences in regions;
• To broaden students’ knowledge about the interrelations between the basic components of labour protection ( engineering, safety technology etc.) by cooperating with public, private and state sectors;
• To educate the fifth level professional qualification specialists in labour safety and protection, thus promoting their competitiveness under the changeable social-economic conditions;
• During students’ practical work and practical placements, to develop and reinforce their professional skills and abilities, and also their skill to independently organize the research, obtain and process the data and to prepare the reports about the conducted research;
• To promote the cooperation between lecturers and students by involving students in the research and projects financed by the EU and RL;
• To strengthen the links between Daugavpils University and Latgale region local governments and enterprises;
• To provide the students matriculated in the programme  with the opportunity to acquire practical skills of using up-to-date equipment and measuring apparatus that conform to EU requirements and ISO standards, as well as with the latest products of information technologies (hardware and software), which are used in the field of labour protection;
• To constantly renew, supplement and improve the scientific, informative and material-technical resources of the study programme;
• To realize the above mentioned objectives by involving in the implementation of the programme qualified DU academic staff and other practitioners working in the branch of labour protection and safety technologies from Latvia and abroad.

As a result of the programme’s acquisition, the graduate will acquire and be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge:

• Labour protection and normative acts relating to it (RL and EU laws, documents and normative acts);
• Safety of manufacturing technologies;
• Assessment of working environment risk factors;
• Sub-branches of labour protection;
• Basics of management studies and business;
• Work pedagogy and psychology.

Skills:

Common skills in the branch:

• Skill of managing the sub-structures of the organization in the field of labour and environmental protection;
• Skill of finding solutions for the optimization of the organization;
• Skill of organizing work relating to internal monitoring of working environment, assessment of risks and measures for their prevention or reduction;
• To independently take and substantiate decisions relating to one’s field of studies;
• To see in the perspective and develop practical approaches in one’s own branch of studies using scientific, theoretical and /or experimental methods and the latest tendencies as the basis for this;
• To understand complicated issues and interconnections between them; to find what is general in concrete things and what is concrete in general things;
• To communicate complicated academic issues both among specialists and non-specialists;
• To independently and critically formulate and analyze difficult practical problems;
• To independently continue developing one’s competences and specialization;
• To make generalizations in both practical context and  research context;

Specific skills in the profession:

• Skill of planning the organization of work of labour protection and activities in environmental protection relating to it;
• Skill of being competent in the commercial activities of the enterprise;
• Skill of solving ergonomic, psycho-social and organizational problems of working environment;
• Skill of acting in extreme situations;
• Skill of controlling working environment of the organization, thus ensuring the employees’ basic needs for occupational health and labour safety.

Competence:

• Is able to apply one’s knowledge and understanding in the way that testifies to a professional approach to work and competence in issues of labour protection;
• In one’s professional activity, is able to adhere to principles of promoting sustainable development;
• To observe the norms of professional ethics and culture of interpersonal communication;
• To strive for improving one’s knowledge and skills in accordance with the field of activity;
• To read current Latvian and foreign periodicals, educational and scientific literature and be informed about the latest tendencies in labour protection and safety.