BCSP and NIOSH Partner to Address Youth Worker Safety
"This new partnership with the BCSP Foundation allows us to extend our work and share a vision for preparing current and future generations of workers with the knowledge and skills they need to contribute to and benefit from safe, healthy and productive workplaces," said NIOSH Director John Howard, MD.
The Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) Foundation and NIOSH have partnered to support and protect the health and safety of young workers. The two organizations signed a new 5-year Memorandum of Understanding at NIOSH offices Monday.
Young workers, who may have limited or no previous work experience and lack safety training, have high rates of workplace injury compared to those of their adult coworkers. NIOSH and the BCSP Foundation aim to partner and develop comprehensive online training for workplace safety and health that reaches beyond NIOSH and its partners’ foundational curriculum for middle and high school students, Youth@Work: Talking Safety.
The training developed by the two partner organizations will promote vital skills for health and safety in the workplace, like the hazard recognition in a workplace environment and the best hazard control methods. The training will be available to the public for free and used with high school career development courses, career technical education, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) tracks, and apprenticeship programs.
"NIOSH has a long history of collaboration with the BCSP. This new partnership with the BCSP Foundation allows us to extend our work and share a vision for preparing current and future generations of workers with the knowledge and skills they need to contribute to and benefit from safe, healthy and productive workplaces," said NIOSH Director John Howard, MD.
The collaboration of NIOSH and the BCSP Foundation will include outreach to high school counselors, educations, businesses, labor organizations, and trades. The two organizations will also work to develop an assessment tool for the online training, analyze data from student assessments, and evaluate the efficacy of the training in increasing young workers’ safety and health skills.