Background:In most universities around the world and particularly in universities in Iraq, students are not provided with any health and safety training courses; therefore, once they graduate and enter workplaces, they might face with health and safety hazards. The present study aimed to assess the impacts of a health and safety training program on health and safety knowledge, attitudes, and skills among students in the University of Sulaimani, the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Methods:In a quasi-experimental study, 960 students of the University of Sulaimani were randomly selected in the academic year 2019-20. Required data on the students’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding health and safety were collected through a standardized self-report questionnaire. Afterwards, they were provided with a health and safety training course which lasted 6 hours. After the training, the same questionnaire was used to check the changes in their health and safety knowledge, attitudes, and skills, and the collected data were analyzed through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 22.0).

Results:Most of the students were females (60.9%), freshmen (47%), and from urban areas (63.3%). Following the health and safety training course, significant changes were seen in all aspects of their health and safety knowledge, attitude, and skills. There was also significant improvement in their risk control in workplace (p<0.001), knowledge about workplace threats and risks (p<0.001), and knowledge about emergency phone numbers and how to use safety equipment (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Training students about health and safety in the form of a training course can lead to improvement in their knowledge, attitude, and skills regarding health and safety, which ultimately ensures their health and safety in their future workplaces.

Keywords: health and safety; health and safety training courses; university students; health and safety knowledge, attitude, and skills; the University of Sulaimani