OSHA and SkillsUSA Create New Alliance
Words: Tim Lawrence, Jonathan SnareFostering safer and healthier workplaces for young workers is the goal of a new Alliance signed between the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and SkillsUSA on Oct. 17.
Through the Alliance agreement, OSHA and SkillsUSA will work together to provide career and technical educators and their students with materials, guidance and access to training resources that will positively impact the occupational safety and health of young workers.
"It is important to educate our nation's youngest workforce about safety and health hazards in the work environment," says Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jonathan L. Snare. "The sooner they learn, the more aware they will be of hazards and ways to avert those hazards. A quality work experience is the result."
SkillsUSA Executive Director Tim Lawrence adds, "A lifetime of career success counts on worker safety. It's essential to any job. That's why career and technical education, and SkillsUSA, stress safety and safe working practices to our students. SkillsUSA is enthusiastic about our alliance with OSHA. We look forward to helping our instructors in over 140 occupational areas reach their students with OSHA expertise."
OSHA and SkillsUSA will provide expertise in developing information on the recognition and prevention of workplace hazards and on ways of communicating such information (e.g., print and electronic media, online forums, electronic assistance tools and OSHA's and SkillsUSA's websites) to educators, employers and young workers.
Alliance members will promote the national dialogue on workplace safety and health by participating in forums, roundtable discussions and stakeholder meetings on young worker safety and health issues to help forge innovative solutions to hazards in the workplace.
For more information, visit www.osha.gov.