Press Release

A young person is seriously injured in a UK workplace every 40 minutes but now, one pupil is achieving a safety qualification every 4 minutes

Thursday, July 3 2008

Leading occupational health and safety charity, the British Safety Council, is delighted to announce that, this year, 16,210 young people have achieved the Entry Level qualification in Workplace Hazard Awareness. 

Between 2004/05 and 2006/071 an unbelievable 10,686 under 19s suffered injuries at work and worst of all 11 died.

The BSC is campaigning to get children educated at school about the dangers of the workplace. The charity is paying for all 14 -19 year olds in full-time education in the UK to help them gain the Entry Level Award in Workplace Hazard Awareness, a new nationally recognised qualification aimed at raising young people’s awareness of health and safety hazards before they embark on work experience or their first job. To date 1,200 schools have registered for the qualification.

"The phenomenal uptake of the qualification is proof of the need for such training in our schools and a clear sign of the importance that head teachers place on ensuring the health and safety of their students who will be entering the workplace." added Brian Nimick.

Shaun Davis, Group Safety, Health and Environment Director at ROK said: "This is really welcome news, particularly for us in the construction and maintenance industry, where health and safety is paramount, not only for our employees but also for our customers.

"We offer work experience placement opportunities and employ hundreds of young apprentices up and down the country, so to know that they have the opportunity to equip themselves with a basic grounding in such an important area before they join us is excellent. As we all know safety is good business and protecting our workforce of tomorrow ensures we secure our industry for the future."

The qualification not only helps keep young people safe at a particularly vulnerable time, but also reinforces the government’s aim to provide personalised learning for every child. For the thousands of children who are not going on to university, a qualification can also prove to a potential employer that they have common sense, motivation and a sense of pride in what they do, and will inevitably will make them more employable.

The qualification is supported by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) with free learning materials.

For further information and details of spokespeople on this issue visit www.britishsafetycouncil.org