Appraisal of safety practices in welding technology workshop among vocational college’s students in Johor

Nowadays, most developed country will give priority to security in all aspects, either from the industry or educational institutions point of view. Knowledge on safety practices in the workshop helps to prevent accidents in the workshop while doing practical work. However, the increase in accidents involving students in science laboratories demands efficient measures to eradicate in order to reduce the incidence of accidents. Awareness of safety is very important when carrying out work in the workshop. Accidents can occur due to human negligence as well as lack of knowledge on safety practices in the workshop. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out students’ perceptions on safety practices at the welding technology workshop and relationship between students’ knowledge, awareness and acceptance level on safety practices at the welding technology workshop in vocational colleges across Johor. A total of 104 respondents were selected for this study, consisting of diploma students from four vocational colleges in Johor. The questionnaires has been distributed and the data collected have been analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science version 22.0 through descriptive statistical methods that determine the mean score value and standard deviation. Based on the analysis, the results showed that the level of safety practice was at a high level, with the level of knowledge (M = 4.31, SD = 0.62), level of awareness (M = 4.37, SD = 0.62) and the level of acceptance (M = 4.27, SD = 0.61). Overall, there is a weak positive relationship between students’ knowledge and awareness level in the practice of safety when working at the welding technology workshop, r (102) = .207, p = .567. In spite of that, there is a strong negative relationship between students’ knowledge and acceptance level in the practice of safety when working at the welding technology workshop, r(102) = -.613, p = .079. Finally, there is a weak positive relationship between students’ awareness and acceptance level in the practice of safety when working at the welding technology workshop, r (102) = .276, p = .472. Consequently, safety practices were very important thing to be highlight when doing practical work and therefore the prominence of it should be given to every student.