Safety professionals who are looking to boost their careers without leaving their current jobs may want to consider enrolling in online college courses in fast-growing fields, such as safety engineering and management.

In fact, many campus-based and online colleges have recently created masters programs in this field in an effort to prevent small- and large-scale disasters, such as the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

For example, an Alabama-based school recently announced the launch of an online masters program that is intended to give safety professionals the engineering skills they will need to prevent and rectify industrial accidents, The Birmingham News reports.

School officials told the news source that the course of study is designed to help working adults update their skills without stunting their career development. In addition, industry experts say that the need for safety engineers is growing, as many companies are increasing their efforts to prevent high-impact mishaps.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for engineers is expected to rise by 11 percent over the next eight years.