Lately in Maker class we have been studying workplace safety as a part of career education. This is very relevant to our class. It seems that all of a sudden everyone felt the desire to get a job and it happened very quickly. Personally, I found a job at the Seymour golf course. It seemed like no one had a job two months ago, but here we are.
Approximately 10,000 young workers are injured on the job every year. This is quite a substantial number. In order to lower this, we have to be taught about workplace safety. If everyone who is starting a job knew about workplace safety regulations and had a proper orientation, that number would decrease significantly.
Young workers are most likely to be injured on the job. The reason for this is young workers have a lack of experience and they might not be aware of the risks on the job. The fact is, every young workers have the right to a safe workplace and the right to refuse unsafe work practices.
In class, we watched a video that had quite the lasting effect on our class. It’s a few stories about injuries that happened while on the job. I’ll link it, but be warned there are some graphic images.
Although the video was pretty gruesome, I think everyone in the class got the picture. You need to know all of the safety hazards when you start at your job.
At your job, employers are required to do 3 things.
1. Orientation. They are required to give you an orientation about the job. This should include putting you through potential scenarios in which you might face at the job.
2. Training. Employers are also required to give you proper training for your job. After your training, you should feel like you know most of the parts of your job
3. Supervision. When you start working, your employer is supposed to supervise throughout your first few shifts to see if you understand all the requirements of the job.
All workplaces are governed by the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. This shows all the legal safety requirements you have the right to at your job. In class, we did an exercise where we shuffled through the OHSR in order to find certain rules. Here’s what it looked like.
The numbers indicate what rule it is governed under. This was helpful exercise because these scenarios could possibly happen at our own job.
Another thing we did was watch a video about workplace safety in Vancouver. There were many videos with all different industries of work. I chose to watch the video about the training that happens when you apply for a job at London Drugs.
This video was actually well done. It showed exactly what happens when you are hired at London drugs. Here’s what I took away from it
To really empathize our learning about this unit, we had to make an artifact. I worked with Luciano to make a video about having the proper training in the workplace. We tried to focus on how you have the right to proper training. Young worker are often hurt on the job and trying to prevent that is obviously quite important. In our video, it’s apparent a young worker unaware of the of risks of the job and eagerly trying to prove themselves. Check it out!
This video was really fun to film. We obviously had some time constraints and our budget was pretty much non-existent.
This unit was really useful to me. I just started working last week and now I’m fully aware of all the rights I have now that I’ve started. I learned a lot of new things, especially about the alarming number of youth injured on the job every year.
Next week to cap off our unit, we are taking a test on workplace safety. If we can pass this, it’s a useful thing to have completed and also we can put it on our personal résumés.
That’s going to wrap up this blog about workplace safety.
Until next time,
Nik
