Safety Start

Every year WorkSafeNB identifies new ways for getting our health and safety message out to our stakeholders. And while we are always looking for innovative approaches, we continue to actively support tried and true initiatives that work – programs, for example, like Safety Start.

“When we first began to integrate health and safety into the school curriculum in 1999, we realized that it would take a while to work its way though the system,” said Perley Brewer, manager, Client Consulting and Education Services. “In the mean time, we had high school students going to work with no knowledge of health and safety. To address this problem, we invited four of our health and safety partners —ASHCAT, the New Brunswick Safety Council, Red Cross and St. John Ambulance— to a meeting to brainstorm for solutions. The end result was Safety Start.”

Safety Start is a free, two-day course, providing seven hours of occupational health and safety and seven hours of emergency first aid, including CPR. It is targeted at youth aged 15-29. The occupational health and safety training includes workers’ legal rights and responsibilities, causes of incidents, and basic skills to identify and manage workplace risks.

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More than 29,000 students have completed the Safety Start Program, since it was introduced in April 2001, including students from high schools, community colleges and post secondary institutions, and those working for non-profits, the private sector, municipalities and the government. Between April 1, 2008 - March 31, 2009, 4,001 students completed the program.

“I can’t stress how important Safety Start is for our youth,” said Bill Walker, president and CEO of Safety Services New Brunswick (formerly the New Brunswick Safety Council). “For many, it is their first exposure to occupational health and safety. An independent evaluation conducted on Safety Start in 2006 concluded that the program is meeting its goal of reducing the frequency and severity of workplace incidents among youth between the ages of 15-29. Since Safety Start began, the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour has encouraged SEED employers to hire students who have completed the Safety Start program when hiring for summer jobs," he said. “So, it’s in their best interest, in more ways than one.”

For more information on Safety Start program, go to Safety Start.