Institutional learning for safer and greener transitions: Embedding legal and process safety knowledge in China’s energy training systems

Process Safety Management (PSM) is a structured framework designed to prevent major industrial accidents by integrating technical, managerial, and behavioral controls across the plant lifecycle. In China’s energy transition, embedding PSM knowledge into workforce training has become increasingly critical. This study investigates how legal safety mandates and PSM elements are integrated into vocational education and enterprise training systems in China’s transitioning energy sector. Using an embedded case study design, we analyse qualitative data from 25 semi-structured interviews, curriculum documents, and internal HSE manuals across two representative enterprises: Jiangsu Oilfield (fossil energy) and a CNOOC clean energy base (emerging low-carbon sector). Findings reveal four major institutional learning failures: uneven integration of PSM elements across educational and workplace training layers; misalignment between regulatory expectations and training content; fragmented coordination among schools, regulators, and companies; and stratified access to safety knowledge, particularly for outsourced workers. To address these issues, we propose the Process Safety Institutional Learning Framework (PSILF), which reconceptualizes safety education as an institutional learning infrastructure that links legal mandates, engineering practice, and workforce experience. The framework highlights critical “loss points” along the knowledge transmission pathway and suggests how education and training can act as a knowledge broker. This study contributes to process safety scholarship by advancing PSILF as a theoretical model, and offers practical recommendations for curriculum reform, inclusive enterprise training, and regulatory–educational coordination. These insights support the development of safer, greener, and more equitable industrial transitions, with relevance for other emerging economies pursuing sustainable development goals.