NBCC/CCNB and WorkSafeNB partner to deliver health and safety training to thousands of students

A new partnership between WorkSafeNB and the New Brunswick Community College network is to ensure that every one of the NBCC and CCNB’s students develop occupational health and safety as an essential skill, necessary to graduate from any one of its programs.

The two organizations began collaborating in 2007 to develop a curriculum that will include a minimum of 14 hours of health and safety education, to be delivered beginning September 2009.

Nadine Edwards, a learning design consultant with NBCC, said the initiative was prompted by feedback from both employers and past graduates.

“We worked with WorkSafeNB in the past, but were not aware of all the services they provided. Before, we thought the role of health and safety education belonged more with industry. We’ve since realized we all share responsibility for ensuring students enter the workforce properly trained, and are committed to making occupational health a safety a priority in all our programs. We want to ensure that every one of our students starting a new job know their rights, risks and responsibilities when it comes to workplace safety.

“While health and safety was emphasized in programs where hazards were obvious, such as those where chemicals or machinery are used, we didn’t thoroughly understand the importance of health and safety training in non-traditional areas,” she said. “Injuries can just as likely occur in an office setting, where eye strain, repetitive strain injuries (RSIs), and musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) are a real concern. The same number of challenges and risks exist across any profession, and although the hazards are of different types and degrees, the outcome is still the same.”

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Edwards says for a student to graduate from any of the NBCC and CCNB’s programs, which number close to 300, they must demonstrate they have developed certain essential skills. Beginning in the fall of 2009, to “work safely” will be one of those skills, along with 10 others, including: communicate; think and solve problems; manage information; and measure, count and calculate. “We’re pretty confident the 19 indicators we’ve identified for the ‘work safely’ component will provide them with the proper health and safety training they need to venture safely into the workforce,” she said.

Indicators are divided into three categories, and include:

• Explain sections of New Brunswick’s health and safety regulations that apply to their particular occupation
• Apply the basic rights of any employee under the Occupational Health and Safety Act
• Apply an accident causation model to case studies identifying early casual factors
• Demonstrate proper workplace techniques such as proper lifting and RSI prevention
• Conduct a basic job hazard analysis for a common task
• Discuss the human impact of workplace injuries
• Adopt the internal responsibility system when addressing workplace health and safety

“It is not enough to provide a stand-alone course in WHMIS or basic occupational health and safety; as an essential skill, health and safety should be intrinsic throughout the curriculum. We will provide an introductory course that introduces the principals of health and safety, and then thread these throughout the program. We will reinforce these principals with learning activities and evaluations. ”

To facilitate program delivery, NBCC, CCNB and WorkSafeNB are training mentors, who in turn are working with faculty selected as champions of workplace safety at each campus. These champions work closely with each program instructor.

“We were thrilled to have partnered with NBCC on this initiative. Young and new workers are at highest risk of workplace injury, so the better prepared they are before they enter the workforce, the lower that risk becomes. We’ll reach close to 6,000 future workers this way,” said Andy Rauska, director, Divisional Support at WorkSafeNB.