Portugal, Portuguese

Key elements Professional School Amar Terra Verde, Lda, was created in 1993 as a private institution. The school has three establishments, in Vila Verde, Amares and Terras de Bouro (its promoter cities), with 920 students, 177 teachers and 27 non-teaching employees. It provides young people with vocational training, tailored to the particular needs of the region and environment. The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) department created in 2006 occupies a prominent place within the school organisation. The school has a health and safety coordinator, three delegates (representing the employees and students from each school) and three OSH representatives of the employer, who meet quarterly. The prevention and control of safety at work aims to strengthen behaviours that prevent the occurrence of injuries as well as other issues such as stress, poor social adaptation, or post- traumatic shock due to an accident at school. Since 2005 each student must have 25 hours of OSH training when entering the school. Employees have access to continuous training, seminars and lectures. Risk assessment is conducted annually and whenever there is a modification at a job or when creating a new job. An outsourcing company and a local hospital collaborate with the school in the risk assessment procedures. The aim of the school is for all pupils and staff to acquire knowledge concerning risk factors at work and develop the capacity to modify behaviours and create strategies to reduce risk exposure. Each employee benefits from annual medical prevention consultations. Each year the school promotes five student sessions on sexual education, organised according to student age and gender by the Health Centre of the establishment city. It was also intended to promote the integration of habits of regular physical exercise as well as postural re-education in the workplace. The consumption of alcohol and tobacco has been banned in the school since 2007. The School newspaper promotes health topics to the entire school community (see http://www.epatv.pt/). Disciplinary incidents are examined in each class. The goal achieved in the last year was less than one incident per class per year.

Level of Education: Initial vocational education and training, Continuing vocational education and training

Lead Organisation: Amar Terra Verde Professional School (EPATV)

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