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OSH training

IOSH policy position on occupational safety and health in training

There’s a growing consensus that investment in occupational safety and health (OSH) is key to ensuring safe, healthy and sustainable workplaces. Employees who are confident of their health, safety and wellbeing at work make workplaces safer and improve business performance.

Providing accessible and understandable information through training is critical to raising employers’ and workers’ awareness and understanding of OSH in workplaces. We welcome efforts to create a learning mindset that is organisation-wide, where OSH professionals can positively influence workers and employers on how OSH is managed in workplaces.

The facts

  • The World Economic Forum forecasts that the three most increasingly important skills in 2022 will relate to analytical thinking and innovation; active learning and learning strategies; and creativity and emotional intelligence.

  • Research commissioned by the International Social Security Association (ISSA) on the return on investments in prevention proves that every dollar invested in safety and health generates a potential benefit of more than two dollars in positive economic impact.

  • Training interventions can lead to positive effects on safety knowledge, adoption of safe work behaviours and practices, and healthy and safe workplaces.

  • A recent ILO report highlighted how non-standard workers and other vulnerable working groups, such as migrant workers, usually have less access to tailored training activities. Their risk factors are determined by poor levels of induction, training and supervision.

  • International bodies like UNESCO appreciate how technology can be a force for good towards achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4. The use of emerging technologies to deliver OSH training can make the learning process more interesting, help create a safer workplace and should result in higher retention rates.

Our position

There’s a growing consensus that investment in OSH is key to ensuring safe, healthy and sustainable workplaces. Employees who are confident of their health, safety and wellbeing at work make workplaces safer and improve business performance.

IOSH believes that accessible and understandable information through training is critical to raising employers’ and workers’ awareness and understanding of OSH in workplaces. We welcome efforts to create a learning mindset, that is organisation-wide, where OSH professionals can positively influence workers and employers on how OSH is managed in workplaces.

IOSH advocates that health and safety be firmly embedded in education and training systems. It needs to be incorporated as an integral part of training schemes throughout professional careers to create more ‘risk intelligent’ societies.

In this scenario, effective OSH training and awareness becomes critical as it contributes to helping to ensure employees are competent and that OSH knowledge is regularly kept up to date.