Occupational Health and Sustainable Work

Sustainable work is a top priority for governments, companies, and policymakers worldwide. With good employee health and decent work now part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, there is an urgent need for specialists in this area. The master’s programme in Occupational Health and Sustainable Work (OHSW) prepares you to address critical questions like: How can we build sustainable careers? And how can organisations support long-term employee health, vitality, and productivity?

Our workforce is ageing, and with new generations joining, employers must adapt to diverse needs and expectations. Advancements in technology, AI, and robotics are also reshaping jobs, bringing both challenges and opportunities to the workplace.

For employers, healthy and engaged employees drive higher productivity, lower turnover, and reduced sickness absence. However, fostering a culture of vitality and sustainability is a challenge many organisations still face. Integrating occupational health into core strategies is essential to bridge the gap between management and employees.

We need experts in occupational health, prevention and sustainable employability to help shape the future of work, with a focus on vitality and sustainable employability.

Interventions to promote sustainable work

In this master's programme, you'll learn how to balance the needs of workers, their families and employers. You are taught about the changing world of work and social welfare, and you develop and evaluate interventions and strategies to promote sustainable employability. You will learn to select and prioritise effective strategies and preventive measures to foster workers’ health and employability. You will also be trained in the systematic development of interventions according to the principles of Intervention Mapping.

Toolbox for the OHSW professional

This master’s programme offers a toolbox of practical skills which enables the OHSW professional to translate theoretical knowledge into practice. To get a better grip on the topics studied in this programme, you are trained to apply the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) trajectory to labour participation, and you are trained in moral case deliberation and evidence-based occupational medicine. Throughout the master's programme, three major learning lines can be distinguished, each with a unique contribution to this toolbox: 

1. A biopsychosocial approach to labour participation: the ICF trajectory;
2. The Evidence-Based Occupational Health trajectory;
3. The Intervention and Communication Skills trajectory. 

You are also taught about the relevant methods needed for research in the field of occupational health and sustainable work, including several qualitative and quantitative methods. 

A biopsychosocial and physical angle

We address both psychosocial and physical working conditions, with a slight emphasis on the first category. A high workload might cause stress, an inadequately designed workplace might cause pain in a person's shoulder and throughout their careers, employees can have issues with work-life balance, might get a chronic illness etc. The solutions can be found in organisational-level strategic advice, health policies, or individual advice and guidance. The programme will train you to combine the best of both worlds. You will work on authentic professional cases and tasks that resemble the complexities of the issues you will face in your career. 

The strengths of our faculty