|
|
|
| Home > Educators > OSHA Alliance |
SkillsUSA/OSHA Alliance
Through the Alliance, 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 impact the occupational safety and health of young workers. Visit this page to find out the latest SkillsUSA/OSHA Alliance news. |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
|
|
U.S. Labor Department and SkillsUSA kick
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today kicked off the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) national 2008 Teen Summer Job Safety Campaign on NBC's TODAY show.
OSHA launched the fourth year of its youth public awareness campaign at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, where the agency and teens from SkillsUSA demonstrated safe work practices for some of the most common tasks that teens are likely to encounter in summer jobs. SkillsUSA, an OSHA national Alliance Program participant, is a nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.
OSHA will host and participate in local events and activities around the country to help keep teenagers safe and healthy on the job. Activities include career fairs, youth programs, expos, career days and training seminars. OSHA and its regional partners are striving to reduce work-related injuries among teens by teaching them on-the-job safety and integration of principles into their work tasks from this early age. Through working with many strong national and regional Alliance Program participants and other cooperative programs, OSHA plans to reach more than three million teens.
Workplaces are safer than they have ever been with fatality and injury and illness rates declining to record lows in this administration. The injury and illness rate was 4.4 per 100 employees and the work-related fatality rate was 4.0 fatalities per 100,000 employees in 2006, the latest data available. Since OSHA's inception in 1971, U.S. employment has increased from 56 million employees at 3.5 million worksites to more than 135 million employees at 8.9 million worksites.
"Programs like the Teen Summer Job Safety Campaign help create a culture of safety," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Edwin G. Foulke Jr. "Our goal is to continue to drive down the number of occupational injuries among teens, especially in the construction industry."
The campaign is part of OSHA's Young Worker Initiative, which provides information and resources to teenagers, parents, educators and employers to ensure safe and rewarding work experiences for these summer employees. More information about workplace safety for teens is available at www.osha.gov/teens.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace for their employees. OSHA's role is to promote the safety and health of America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement in workplace safety and health.
New OSHA fact sheet on Workplace Webinar on OSHA Challenge OSHA Challenge currently has 125 Construction and General Industry Participants representing more than 68,000 employees. Results indicate that the typical Participant will reduce their injury and illness rates by 37%-45% from their baseline. Some participants have even reported reductions of over 90%. As part of our efforts to keep Alliance Program participants informed of OSHA cooperative programs, we invite you to participate in a Webinar April 10, 2008, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT to learn more about OSHA Challenge. OSHA Challenge serves as a roadmap to enhance your Safety and Health Management System and obtain OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) status for interested applicants. Approval into VPP is OSHA’s official recognition of the outstanding efforts of employers and employees who have achieved exemplary occupational safety and health. The Webinar will provide interested parties with:
In order to provide participants with Webinar instructions, we ask that they sign up for the session by e-mailing Jerad Linneman no later than Thursday, April 3, 2008. Since VPP’s inception, many employers asked for a program that caters specifically to organizations that are interested in VPP but need some help meeting its requirements. Consequently, the Agency instituted OSHA Challenge to satisfy this need. OSHA Challenge recognizes that there are many employers at different stages in the implementation of a successful safety and health management system. OSHA designed Challenge to provide assistance to each stage of implementation. OSHA Challenge provides opportunities for employers not currently served by existing OSHA cooperative programs, to work with the Agency and receive recognition for their efforts. Challenge Participants enter into either the Construction or General Industry track. Within each track, Participants follow a detailed three-stage roadmap that guides them to improve their safety and health management systems and work toward VPP approval. For more information on the Challenge Program, please refer to the OSHA Challenge Web page or contact OSHA’s Office of Partnerships and Recognition at 202-693-2213. State Standards Information on OSHA Site These states must adopt standards that are at least as effective as comparable federal standards. Most states adopt standards identical to the federal ones. The new State Plan Standards and Policies/Directives page includes summary charts on each state plan's response to every new OSHA standard and directive issued since June 2006. The charts show which states have adopted identical standards or procedures and which have adopted something different (and where to find the different state document.) New charts will be added approximately six months after the issuance of a new federal standard or directive. The new State Plan Standards and Policies/Directives page can be found at www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp/std_fpc.html. For a listing of states with OSHA_approved job safety and health programs, see www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp/index.html. New OSHA Web Page on Combustible Dust "Fires and explosions resulting from combustible dust can pose a significant danger at the workplace," said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Edwin G. Foulke Jr. "This new safety and health topics page is part of a long-term, ongoing program in OSHA to address these hazards and assure safe and healthful working conditions." Industries that have combustible dust include food, grain, tobacco, plastics, wood, paper, pulp, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal, metals, and fossil fuel power generation. The Combustible Dust Safety and Health Topics page includes a listing of OSHA and national consensus standards relevant to combustible dust. The Web page also features links to key OSHA resources on combustible dust, including:
OSHA is developing additional resources on combustible dust, including a fact sheet. These resources will be added to the Combustible Dust Safety and Health Topics page as they become available. NAOSH Week You can access tons of information and tools for planning and implementing NAOSH Week this May 4-10 and OSHP Day this May 7 at http://www.asse.org/naosh08 and/or by using the electronic NAOSH/OSHP Day tool kit. Also, the national NAOSH Week kick-off in Washington, DC, on Monday, May 5,
is going to be an eventful day. The day begins at the U.S. Department of
Labor, with OSHA Administrator Edwin Foulke Jr., ASSE President Michael W.
Thompson, CSP, and the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering's (CSSE)
Andrew Cooper, who will be joined by the winners of the Society's
Safety-on-the-Job kids' poster contest and representatives from more than 30
The Fall Protection Workgroup of the OSHA Alliance Program’s Construction Roundtable, in conjunction with the agency’s Directorate of Construction, has developed the the following toolbox talks on ladder safety. The Alliance Program Construction Roundtable's Design for Safety Workgrouphas developed a 2-4 Hour Design for Construction Safety Training Course for design and construction professionals. It is posted in the 2-4 Hour DfCS Presentation section on the Construction Institute American Society of Civil Engineers' Design for Construction Safety Web site. Teen Summer Safety Campaign Pictures from the event are below:
National Occupational Health Nursing Week
North American Occupational Safety and Health Week 2008 For more information, visit www.asse.org/newsroom/naosh07/ Volunteer for an OSHA Editorial Board Pictures from OSHA Events
OSHA Topics Pages Can Help
Representatives of SkillsUSA attended the North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week kick-off as OSHA alliance partners during two events at the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Capitol on May 1, 2006. The goal of NAOSH Week is to focus attention on the importance of preventing injury and illness in the workplace. Safety and health of young workers is a priority. Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. was one of the featured speakers. Shown (l. to r.) next to Assistant Secretary Foulke are Mike Washington, president of Calvert Career Center, Maryland and Grace Thompson, SkillsUSA Maryland vice president 2006-2007. SkillsUSA is a supporter of North American Occupational Safety & Health (NAOSH) Week, April 30 - May 6, 2006. The national kick-off will take place at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, DC on Monday, May 1, 2006. Get more information. Student focus group assists Fednet OSHA Training
SkillsUSA hosted approximately 20 Northern Virginia Career and Technical Education instructors at their national center for OSHA training on Feb. 6-9, 2006. These instructors received their 30-hour OSHA certification to become trainers. The Commonwealth of Virginia sponsored the training in Leesburg and throughout other locations in the state to ensure students enrolled in construction trades programs will be kept safe. SkillsUSA's corporate member, Lee Ross, from the Virginia Department of Education, spearheaded the effort. CareerSafe Online
The CareerSafe Online program has been an integral part of training students on OSHA standards and safety issues since September of 2003. Since that time, nearly 50,000 students nationwide have either completed or enrolled in the CareerSafe Online OSHA Training Program. The overall satisfaction rating for the CareerSafe course is above 96 percent, with 50 percent of new enrollment coming from repeat customers. The CareerSafe program is an on-line course accessible to youth that provides ten hours of classroom content within a Web-Based Training (WBT) compressed learning time. The program was designed to teach younger workers (ages 16-24) how to stay safe in the workplace and how to be safety conscious. Not to be confused with the OSHA Training Institute-approved 10-hour General Industry and Construction courses, the CareerSafe Program is an OSHA-approved program for its intended purpose, i.e., blending the training highlights of the General Industry and Construction 10-hour courses and other OSHA-sponsored courses into a youth-focused, on-line delivery medium. By providing entry-level workers, particularly high school and college students, with fundamental safety knowledge needed in the workplace, CareerSafe brings the significance of safety to the forefront. Additionally, it seeks to challenge society to affirm the value of life by joining efforts to reduce the workplace injuries and fatalities suffered by this at-risk working population. Upon successful completion of the CareerSafe modules and evaluation, youth participants receive an OSHA-approved CareerSafe Card that indicates they have completed the CareerSafe OSHA 10-hour Occupational and Health Training Course. This OSHA-approved CareerSafe Card should not be confused with the 10-hour cards issued through completion of other OSHA-approved classes. The issuance of this CareerSafe Card is useful to young workers in advising prospective employers that they 1) have completed a basic safety awareness training course, 2) have completed a foundation course that prepares them for additional training, and 3) are better prepared to enter the workforce from a safety awareness perspective than youth who have not received any safety training. CareerSafe Online is dedicated to keeping students safe, while giving them a competitive advantage in the workplace. |
|
|||||||
|
SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled work force. We help each student excel. SkillsUSA • P.O. Box 3000 • Leesburg, Virginia • 20177-0300 (703) 777-8810 • FAX: (703) 777-8999 SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit and tax-exempt student organization under the Internal Revenue Service Code, Section (501)(c)(3). |
