We are glad to welcome The Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) as a new member to our network, which now has 94 members from 37 countries worldwide. CLS is an independent, educational, documentation and research centre at the University of Malta. It longs to strengthen the University's link with working persons, employers and the world of work at large and promote social dialogue, active involvement and the effective participation of workers, and their representatives, in specific workplaces and in labour policy more generally.
To pursue this mission, CLS seeks to establish healthy working partnerships and promote synergies between academics, government, trade unions, employers and other actors from civil society involved in the field of labour relations, organise educational programmes aimed at sensitising people actively involved or interested in labour issues to current trends, relevant concepts and analytical tools pertinent in this area. The center acts as a national monitoring agency and clearing house for trends and developments occurring in employment and industrial relations and carries out research, consultancy and disseminate information on issues related to industrial and employee relations in Malta and abroad.
Since 1997, the CLS has been offering a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety. Malta’s main crop of occupational health and safety practitioners has derived primarily from graduates of this diploma programme. In 2016 the Centre started offering this course at a Bachelor level as a Degree (Honours) in Occupational Health and Safety.
More information on CLS in our member's area and on the CLS website.

In Nigeria, there is a very active woman working intensively on child safety in Africa. Ugochi Obidiegwu is the CEO of Ulomka Multi Solutions, a growing Health and Safety business. Her safety movement focuses on creating unique safety education products for African children and educators in order to intentionally groom safety conscious children. Using “The Safety Chic” platform on social media, she engages in safety advocacy. The "Train Them Young Initiative" (#2TYI), under her company, has taught over 4000 students in Nigeria and Ghana safety skills and is being replicated in other African countries.
This is achieved via training and her child safety story book series – "The Adventures of Muna", which was self published on Amazon. It has been sold in 11 states and 7 countries. She convenes the annual School Safety Summit where relevant stakeholders proffer solutions to safety challenges affecting school children.
Due to her work, in 2016, she became a YALI Regional Leadership Centre Fellow for Emerging African Leaders. In 2017, she was a finalist for the McKinsey Next Generation Woman Leader Award. In 2018 she became a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur and a Mandela Washington Fellow. She currently sits on the West African Regional Advisory Board to IREX and USAID on matters relating to the Mandela Washington Fellowship.
Ugochi Obidiegwu is committed to ensuring more children get safety education in Africa. She plans to keep introducing innovative safety programmes and products that enhance safety consciousness.
ENETOSH is very glad to cooperate with Ugochi Obidiegwu in the future!

EU-OSHA in collaboration with ENETOSH (European Network Education and Training in Occupational Safety and Health) organised a seminar addressing the issue of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among young people and workers. The seminar was organised in the framework of an OSH overview project on MSDs and with a view to the upcoming Healthy Workplaces campaign ‘Lighten the Load’, to start in October 2020.
The event served as an awareness-raising activity on the need to promote good musculoskeletal health at an early age. Participants exchanged ideas in small groups led by experts on four different aspects: research, policy (OSH – ergonomics), practice (mainstreaming OSH into education), and communication (body self-perception).
On the website of EU-OSHA, reports on the main conclusions from each workshop are available now, as well as information on the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders, a practical guide for small businesses on psychosocial risks, stress and musculoskeletal disorders and information on mainstreaming OSH into education.

Talking Safety, a foundational curriculum in occupational safety and health, is a project run by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This curriculum, maintained by the NIOSH Safe • Skilled • Ready Workforce Program, is the culmination of many years’ work by a consortium of partners dedicated to reducing occupational injuries and illnesses among youth.
In March 2019, Prevention Science, the Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research, published a multilevel evaluation of the Talking Safety Curriculum for Middle Schools and High Schools by Rebecca J. Guerin (author), Andrea H. Okun, John P. Barile, James G. Emshoff, Michelle D. Ediger and Devin S. Baker.
This study evaluates the effectiveness of a foundational curriculum from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Talking Safety, to change adolescents’ workplace safety and health knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention to engage in workplace safety actions. The study also examines the impact of teacher fidelity of curriculum implementation on student outcomes. A multilevel evaluation, based on a modified theory of planned behavior, was conducted in 2016 with 1748 eighth-graders in Miami-Dade, Florida.
Get access to the full article here, to the "Talking Safety" curriculum here.