Health & Safety Preparation Push for Work Experience Students

Last updated 10 Jun 2014

Have you got some work experience lined up for this summer holiday? If yes, nice one! And it’s better to be safe than sorry when you’re heading into any new environment, which is why you could be offered the opportunity to get prepped with a Health and Safety qualification at school soon…

People may jest about health and safety in the workplace, but at the end of the day you need to be safe and well in whatever you’re doing – whether it’s physical hard graft or office work. We don’t want any spanners in legs or you feeling stressed out to the max!

That’s why schools are being urged to offer students The British Safety Council’s Entry Level Award in Workplace Hazard Awareness to help them get clued up on health and safety issues before they get started in their first work placements.

It’s by no means because they want to freak you out. They’re actually being pretty logical and pragmatic. According to research by Great Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), new workers are as likely to have an accident in the first six months at a workplace as during the whole of the rest of their working life!

Alex Botha, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, said: “The British Safety Council’s vision is that no one should be injured or made ill at work and it is a priority to reduce the risks young people face in the workplace. In the UK last year 148 people died at work, 21,000 were seriously injured and around 27 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury. Workplace injuries and ill health cost society at least an estimated £13.8 billion annually.

“We recognise that safety is about people and education is essential. Our Ofqual-accredited qualification teaches young people how to keep themselves and their co-workers healthy and safe and encourages them to speak up if they have concerns about the hazards they are facing.”

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