Psychosocial risks in the trainer activity of a vocational school

Abstract

Vocational schools have undergone several changes over the past years, which had consequences for teachers' working conditions. Thus, this work has as its main purpose the analysis and evaluation of psychosocial risks present in this activity, namely in terms of stress levels and professional exhaustion. For this purpose, a methodological approach was elaborated that included, for example, the application of a questionnaire to the set of teachers / trainers of one vocational school in the North of Portugal, covering dimensions such as occupational stress, professional exhaustion, coping of stressful situations in the teaching activity and socio-professional data. A risk assessment was also performed based on the Simple Method for Psychosocial Occupational Risk Assessment. The data showed that the teachers under study had a high level of stress, but a low level regarding exposure to burnout. Regarding the use of coping strategies, it is concluded that the group of teachers makes good use of coping strategies, having high values in on task dimension and low in emotions and avoidance.