On 6 January 2009 a two-year agreement led by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and Ministry of National Education (MEB) was set up. The aim was for vocational and technical training schools to provide occupational health and safety education to school directors, teachers and students. This involved teaching young people about health and safety risks before they entered working life, and providing skills training and behaviour modelling to enable them develop the positive behaviours and attitudes towards occupational health and safety which in turn should facilitate positive safety culture in the future workforce. Key elements As the school directors’ actions are important in creating occupational health and safety awareness in education, occupational health and safety training was delivered to 741 school directors. In Turkey the building, construction and maritime industries are considered high risk sectors, therefore the schools specialising in these sectors were chosen for a pilot project. The project involved training workshops run by an occupational safety and health expert. These covered practical group work identifying sources of risk and danger, creating risk assessments and exposure measures. The feedback from the workshop participants was positive. To facilitate indirect learning, there is also a continued focus on occupational health and safety through competitions and interactive exercises. A guidebook is in preparation in collaboration with occupational safety and health experts detailing the results of the pilot project in order to provide guidance for other vocational and technical training schools.
Level of Education: Initial vocational education and training, Continuing vocational education and training
Lead Organisation: Ministry of Labour and Social Security and Ministry of National Education of Republic of Turkey
