Safety Awareness for School Students

The Safe Learner Concept:

The Government Initiative of protecting young people in the world of work, "The Safe Learner Concept" was developed by the National Learner Health & Safety Partnership (NLH&SP) Group. The Partnership is headed by the Learning Skills Councils throughout the UK and the Safe Learner Concept is filtered down through all learning bodies, providers, colleges and schools, and is fast becoming as seen as a "must do" for all concerned.

The Safe Learner Concept is a - cradle to grave - model for protecting the health and safety of all people whilst at work. The concept takes into account the first steps taken by young learners right through to retirement in the workplace. The Safe Learner Concept is broken down into five Key Stages; Stage One being the delivery of health and safety awareness to all school students who may be preparing to embark on work placements or indeed leaving school to commence full-time employment.

The Concept in the School:

Stage One of the Safe Learner Concept has been designed to ensure that learners entering the workplace for the first time are armed with health and safety knowledge, and specifically, knowledge of the hazards and risks they are likely to face in their new environment. An aware learner is a safe learner.

The Government has identified within the Safe Learner Concept Stage One, exactly what topics need to be covered in awareness sessions. Learners will be forearmed with the knowledge regarding:

• What occupational health and safety is and the importance of it.
• The benefits of occupational health and safety.
• Hazard and risk and the importance of understanding their importance.
• The obligations of learners and employers.
• Accidents and ill-health and the causes of both.
• Emergency situations in the workplace, such as fire.
• Health and safety law and the duties it places on employers and employees.
• Safety signs and notices.
• Personal Protective Equipment and clothing.
• Safe Systems of Work and how they are developed.
• An awareness of the main causes of accidents and ill-health in the workplace - manual handling - slip and falls - machinery etc.

The Benefits of Aware Learners:

All stakeholders within the process of transition from student to employee, i.e., Schools, Students, Parents, Employers, Providers and Insurers, will be far more at ease knowing the learner has received health and safety awareness training. The ongoing rewards of this are:

• Fewer accidents in the workplace.
• Companies being more inclined to take on learners on work placement programmes.
• Companies favouring young people with safety awareness training for full-time employment.
• Young people knowing their health and safety rights in the workplace.
• As young people become adults, the importance of health and safety is passed on to others.

How it will be delivered:

Making Learning Work Limited has developed the Safety Awareness Training so it can be electronically delivered via the school's intranet system.

School students will log onto the system and be able to work through the training within the school timetable framework. The sessions can be broken down into manageable sections to retain learner interest and satisfy school timescales for allocated learning hours.

Following the training, there will be a multiple choice questionnaire which the learner will complete. The questionnaire consists of 30 questions covering the range of the course. On successful completion of the questionnaire and the attainment of the required percentage of correct answers, the learner will then be awarded with a certificate of completion.

The certificate will be in the form of a Passport and will clearly state that the learner has successfully gained the sufficient level of health and safety awareness required to enter the working environment of prospective employers.

The Passport will show a unique issue number, the student's name, date of achievement and a validation signature from a Director of Making Learning Work. The Passport remains in the possession of the student from school and into the world of work. It is hoped, that when young people do take on full time employment, the further stages of the Safe Learner Concept will be made available to them and afford them a long and healthy working life.