Occupational Health and Safety Training for Vocational High School Teachers

A cooperation protocol has been signed to develop the concept of occupational health and safety among teachers working in vocational high schools.

Close to 1 million workplace accidents happen every day, and these accidents cost the world about 4% of total GDP. Occupational diseases and workplace accidents take millions of lives and leave many people unable to work every year. Vocational high school graduates, given the nature of their work, are among the groups most affected by workplace accidents.

The fact that students trained in vocational schools become one of the groups most affected by workplace accidents after they enter working life is a clear sign that the OH&S concept is not being formed in vocational high schools. Yet the workers who should be best informed about occupational safety measures are precisely those who have graduated from these schools.

Preventing workplace accidents and occupational diseases, and creating healthy and safe workplaces and training environments, requires building an OH&S culture, starting in vocational schools and spreading across every sector. This protocol aims to develop occupational health and safety awareness among vocational high school students.

Safe School Principles Will Be Defined

Under the protocol, OH&S outcomes will be added to course content and curricula across subjects, areas, and modules, and improvement work will be carried out on existing systems.

Awareness tools such as posters and other materials on occupational health and safety will be developed and distributed. Training will be delivered to provincial and district vocational education branch managers, active workplace safety officers at schools, teachers, and administrative staff.

Under the signed protocol, safe-school conditions will be defined and model physical arrangements will be put in place at schools. Alongside this, personal protective equipment and training tools and materials required in laboratories and workshops used for technical and vocational education will be designed and distributed. In-service training on Law No. 6331 will be delivered to teachers on occupational health and safety topics.

Bringing Workplace Accidents to Zero

Speaking at the signing, the Director General of Vocational Education said they had signed a protocol that carries real weight for students. Where there is well-being and comfort, there is training behind it. In places without training, safety, and calm, accidents are hard to avoid.

The Director General noted that close to 2 million students are studying in 3,300 educational institutions under the Directorate of Vocational Education. The country is working to build the skilled workforce it needs. Through the courses that follow from this protocol and the content taught, workplace accidents facing young people can be prevented.

With around 140,000 teachers working in vocational education institutions, officials shared the following:

We want our teachers to be trained on occupational health and safety by expert teams in each province under the Directorate General of Occupational Health and Safety. Once teachers trained in OH&S pass this knowledge on to students, we believe workplace accidents will reach zero.

The training given in school laboratories and workshops was noted, and it was stated that the Directorate General of Occupational Health and Safety will support OH&S measures in the vocational education community. Through OH&S training in schools, students will be protected from minor lapses, preventing the major workplace accidents that could follow.

The Director General of Occupational Health and Safety at the Ministry of Labor noted that there is much work still to do in Turkey to improve OH&S and develop the concept.

Training is an area of common agreement. Occupational health and safety is the most important factor in building awareness. When young people learn the principles of working life before they enter work, and when we teach students that OH&S measures must be taken, we hope to reach the goal of zero workplace accidents.

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