Sustainable Development of Safety Professionals’ Competencies: Insights from Safety Engineering Education in Chinese Universities

The competency level of safety professionals directly impacts the effectiveness of accident prevention and control within enterprises. Establishing a systematic talent development framework and knowledge architecture is the key pathway to enhancing corporate safety performance. This study focuses on the safety engineering education system in Chinese universities, aiming to systematically analyze the relationship between safety competency components, knowledge systems, and curriculum design. This analysis will establish a competency model and knowledge framework applicable to safety professionals. By collecting and organizing the core curriculum of this program, this study employs complex network analysis methods. Using Gephi software, a course network is constructed and visualized. Based on this, courses are categorized according to their knowledge content, thereby dissecting the competency model and knowledge framework embedded within the safety engineering talent development system of higher education institutions. The findings indicate that safety professionals should possess four core competencies: fundamental knowledge competency, safety management competency, occupational safety technology competency, and risk management competency. These encompass 24 key safety knowledge areas, which can be effectively cultivated through systematic study of 19 core professional courses. Starting from the educational system architecture, this research provides theoretical foundations and practical references for enterprises and universities in cultivating safety professionals, evaluating competencies, and optimizing curricula.