How many of us have taken the time to think about our first safety training? Most of us think about a safety lesson in school or a safety course at work, but in reality it began at home long before we understood completely what we were being told. Do you remember when your mom would yell, “No! Don’t touch that pan, you will burn yourself!” Or perhaps you remember your father saying, “Get out of that tree! You’ll fall and hurt yourself!” Do you remember someone yelling at you, “Stop playing with those matches! Do you want to burn the house down?” All these life instructions were meant to keep us safe and healthy which is why, at CareerSafe, we advocate — “Safety is a Life Skill”— and as such, safety awareness training is not just the responsibility of employers.
Long before students start their first paying job, they work around the house, on their family farm or ranch, at school, in student organizations, volunteering, or at places of worship. In each of these settings, young people are exposed to many of the same hazards they will find in the workplace. If you Google®” student dies”, you will get 153 million results in 0.43 seconds. We do not have to look very hard to find that hazards to students are everywhere all the time. It sad to think that many of these lives might have been saved if only these students had been better prepared to avoid commonly encountered safety hazards.
Our sons and daughters are the future and they deserve a foundation of safety awareness training as part of their life skills long before they reach their first employer. Providing students with safety training early is crucial to establishing good safety and health practices before our children develop bad habits that place them at risk. We must recognize that safety is not simply the concern of business, but requires the responsibility of people at all levels of our communities in order to protect those who are least prepared and most at risk.
There is a reason why our parents and the other adults in our lives spent so much time telling us what not to do. They love us. This love is what drove them to constantly correct our behavior. They wanted to make sure we would understand how to recognize and avoid those life hazards that would place us at risk. In our role as CTE educators, we have a responsibility to share our life lessons to help students build a solid foundation of safety awareness as part of their preparation for managing and living a better quality of life. Let’s always remember that No Job is Worth a Young Worker’s Life.
About CareerSafe
Since 2003, more than 670,000 students have enrolled into CareerSafe safety training programs. By providing fundamental safety knowledge and awareness to entry-level workers, students enter the workforce more confident, capable, and efficient. CareerSafe’s OSHA 10-Hour training courses give students the opportunity to lay a long-term groundwork for future career success. At a cost of $25 per student, CareerSafe provides the most affordable authorized online OSHA training programs in the country. America’s youth are our future. Make safety a priority. For additional information about CareerSafe, visit our website.
This post was written by CareerSafe, a sponsor of our 2016 Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C.