Occupational Risk Prevention from school, why not?
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2025 5:58 am
Bernardo Rodriguez , professor of the Master's Degree in Occupational Risk Prevention, Excellence, Environment and CSR at Bureau Veritas Training. PhD in Management Systems Implementation.
Implementing a preventive culture among our youth is, without a doubt, a collective challenge for today's society. And, as such, why not do it from school, the place where values and attitudes are instilled in us from our earliest childhood?This would be a significant boost in raising awareness of the potential occupational risks that exist in different productive activities, as well as an impetus to put into practice possible preventive actions and/or measures.
Paradoxically, this need for training in prevention is still valid in the 21st century. Although we are immersed in the Information Society and technological advances and improvements in information and training mechanisms have resulted in a population with a level of qualification never before achieved, the high accident rates that plague many sectors of our country have not been alleviated.
Currently, information and instruction on Occupational bitcoin data Risk Prevention is restricted to certain educational levels and/or training environments and is concentrated to a greater extent in work and professional environments, that is, through courses on Occupational Risk Prevention and specific work positions. Existing regulations encourage this to be done.
Spanish legislation establishes the right to protection of workers against occupational risks, introduces the principles of preventive action and emphasises that training must be provided at the time of hiring, when changes occur in the functions performed by the worker, new technologies are introduced or when changes occur in the work teams. Thus, we do not find any mention of the need to include knowledge on occupational risk prevention in the basic and compulsory training period of all Spanish citizens, who sooner or later will become an active part of the labour market.
Mathematics, Physics, Language and Occupational Risk Prevention?
Many educational psychologists highlight the role that the formative stage plays in the life of every person. Authors such as Azeredo and Stephens-Stidham (2003) express the idea that “the patterns of behaviour and lifestyles that have normally been developed during childhood and youth determine the way in which we deal with risks and conflicts throughout our lives”. This is why it is clear how schools can exert a powerful influence in this regard on the future behaviour of people.
It is therefore understood that it is necessary to adopt educational-training measures aimed at instilling a preventive vision in behaviours and attitudes that will be useful to avoid future accidents (not only at work, but also at home). As Hundeloh and Hess (2003) point out, “the success and quality of prevention in the educational system is achieved when there is greater involvement of schools, not only by promoting safety and health, but also by laying the foundations for the construction of an education in preventive values necessary in future working life.”
Including and normalising preventive culture and the knowledge associated with it in our daily classrooms will ensure that when our students have to take up a certain job, they will be fully aware of what they have learned and internalised in their basic training as citizens. It will be at this point that the teaching of prevention will have fully achieved its aims.
The clearest example of this is found in other types of knowledge that are completely normal in the daily lives of our students: road safety, gender equality, solidarity... Therefore, the goal now is to ensure that Occupational Risk Prevention becomes one of these cross-cutting issues in our educational centres, giving it the importance that is assumed.
Implementing a preventive culture among our youth is, without a doubt, a collective challenge for today's society. And, as such, why not do it from school, the place where values and attitudes are instilled in us from our earliest childhood?This would be a significant boost in raising awareness of the potential occupational risks that exist in different productive activities, as well as an impetus to put into practice possible preventive actions and/or measures.
Paradoxically, this need for training in prevention is still valid in the 21st century. Although we are immersed in the Information Society and technological advances and improvements in information and training mechanisms have resulted in a population with a level of qualification never before achieved, the high accident rates that plague many sectors of our country have not been alleviated.
Currently, information and instruction on Occupational bitcoin data Risk Prevention is restricted to certain educational levels and/or training environments and is concentrated to a greater extent in work and professional environments, that is, through courses on Occupational Risk Prevention and specific work positions. Existing regulations encourage this to be done.
Spanish legislation establishes the right to protection of workers against occupational risks, introduces the principles of preventive action and emphasises that training must be provided at the time of hiring, when changes occur in the functions performed by the worker, new technologies are introduced or when changes occur in the work teams. Thus, we do not find any mention of the need to include knowledge on occupational risk prevention in the basic and compulsory training period of all Spanish citizens, who sooner or later will become an active part of the labour market.
Mathematics, Physics, Language and Occupational Risk Prevention?
Many educational psychologists highlight the role that the formative stage plays in the life of every person. Authors such as Azeredo and Stephens-Stidham (2003) express the idea that “the patterns of behaviour and lifestyles that have normally been developed during childhood and youth determine the way in which we deal with risks and conflicts throughout our lives”. This is why it is clear how schools can exert a powerful influence in this regard on the future behaviour of people.
It is therefore understood that it is necessary to adopt educational-training measures aimed at instilling a preventive vision in behaviours and attitudes that will be useful to avoid future accidents (not only at work, but also at home). As Hundeloh and Hess (2003) point out, “the success and quality of prevention in the educational system is achieved when there is greater involvement of schools, not only by promoting safety and health, but also by laying the foundations for the construction of an education in preventive values necessary in future working life.”
Including and normalising preventive culture and the knowledge associated with it in our daily classrooms will ensure that when our students have to take up a certain job, they will be fully aware of what they have learned and internalised in their basic training as citizens. It will be at this point that the teaching of prevention will have fully achieved its aims.
The clearest example of this is found in other types of knowledge that are completely normal in the daily lives of our students: road safety, gender equality, solidarity... Therefore, the goal now is to ensure that Occupational Risk Prevention becomes one of these cross-cutting issues in our educational centres, giving it the importance that is assumed.