BSC safety inititiative

Published: 01 June, 2007

In the UK in the last decade, 66 under-19s were killed at work whilst over 14,500 suffered major injuries. With over 350,000 school children annually embarking on work experience these statistics have highlighted the need for relevant health and safety training in schools.

As part of the UK’s biggest ever drive to ensure the health and safety of young people the British Safety Council Awards has introduced a new vocational qualification aimed primarily at 14 to16 year olds – the Entry Level Award in Workplace Hazard Awareness. This aims to raise awareness of health and safety hazards in the workplace before students embark upon work experience or their first job.

The qualification is supported by a free teaching resource developed by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) in partnership with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The Workplace Hazard Awareness Course supports the delivery of health and safety in the National Curriculum and is designed to fit into existing programmes of study for GCSE Science, Personal Health and Social Education (PHSE) or workrelated learning.

The Workplace Hazard Awareness course and qualification have been successfully piloted in schools and 500 pupils have already entered for the assessment. For information on the qualification visit www.britishsafetycouncil.org/schools

To find out more about the IOSH/HSE Workplace Hazard Awareness Course, and how to register for free access to the learning materials, please go to: www.wiseup2work.co.uk/whac

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