HAMILTON, ON (October 30, 2013) – On November 6, 2013 more than 250,000 grade nine students across Canada will visit the workplace of a parent, relative or friend as part of the National program, Take Our Kids to Work™ day. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) is calling for all workplaces to make health and safety a priority when welcoming students to the workplace on this day.
Take Our Kids to Work™ day gives workplaces the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to educating young people about health and safety,” says Steve Horvath, President and CEO at CCOHS. “This may be their first experience in the workplace so it’s important that we show them an early example of how workplaces conduct themselves in a healthy and safe way. If they walk away understanding what a safe workplace is, then I believe we’ve achieved something meaningful on this day,” Horvath says.
In preparation for Take Our Kids to Work™ day, CCOHS recommends employers:
- Conduct an inspection of the work area prior to the day.
- On the day, hold a workplace orientation with the students that focus on health and safety issues relevant to that environment.
- Supervise students all day while they are at the workplace site.
- Students should only be allowed to undertake tasks and experiences for which they have been properly oriented.
- In the work environment, students should be encouraged to speak up about health and safety concerns, ask questions, and comment on situations they observed during the day.
Workplace health and safety resources are available for free on the CCOHS website to help workplaces promote safety to students and young workers alike.
The free webinar, Help Your New Workers Stay Safe covers the overall training needs of a new worker, and details how to incorporate a best practice approach for reaching young, new or migrant workers, and how to acknowledge the differences between these groups.
The New Worker Orientation Checklist offers work places a guide on how to provide training to workers.
The Young Workers Zone is a website dedicated to providing free and easy access to a comprehensive collection of credible resources in Canada for keeping kids safe on the job.
More information and resources relating to young workers can be found on the CCOHS website.
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For Further Information, Contact:
Eleanor Westwood, Manager - Communications
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
(905) 572-2981, Ext. 4408 E-mail: eleanor.westwood@ccohs.ca
www.ccohs.ca
Jennifer Howse, Communications Officer
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
(905) 572-2981, Ext. 4241 E-mail: jennifer.howse@ccohs.ca
www.ccohs.ca
About CCOHS
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), a Canadian federal government agency based in Hamilton, Ontario is Canada's national resource for the advancement of workplace health and safety. CCOHS promotes the total well-being - physical, psychosocial and mental health - of working Canadians by providing information, training, education, management systems and solutions that support health and safety programs and the prevention of injury and illness. CCOHS partners and collaborates with agencies and organizations from Canada and around the world to improve the quality and quantity of resources and programs, as well as expand the breadth of usage of occupational health information to many different segments of society.
