____________________________________ Risk/Safety/Health Overview
unemployment insurance, immigration, occupational safety and health, wages and hours
of work, equal access, and others are intended to protect worker safety.
Employers who provide work-based learning opportunities for students must be aware of
their legal obligations, but those obligations are essentially the same for students as for
other workers. In other words, if employers provide safe workplaces and training in
health and safety issues for their `regular' employees, conditions should be the same for
students in work-based learning experiences at those sites.
Risk Management is Common Sense
Despite the fact that nothing in the world, including a workplace, can be guaranteed 100
percent safe or accident-free, employers can manage risk for employees and student-
learners. Managing risk means to develop a plan that assesses hazards in the workplace
and identifies solutions or actions to reduce the possibility of problems, accidents, or
injuries. Three primary strategies for managing risk are:
·
Avoid the dangers sell or otherwise eliminate dangerous equipment or
property; remove dangerous conditions; stop hazardous practices
·
Transfer the dangers buy insurance; make contractual agreements; obtain
waivers of indemnification and/or certificates of insurance
·
Reduce dangerous incidents through safe work practices establish and
implement safety and training programs; regularly inspect worksites,
workstations, and equipment; establish and implement regular maintenance
procedures and schedules
In a nutshell, risk management is a practical process used to keep people and property
safe from harm. Parents have been practicing risk management for years!
Risk management is also just good common sense. While this guide will provide practical
tools and suggestions that can be used by teacher-coordinators, employers, students, and
others involved in work-based learning opportunities, nothing can replace common sense.
If a situation does not look safe, feel safe, or act safe,
it is probably NOT safe
and
no student (or worker) should be placed there.
WBL Guide 2002 __________________________________________________ B -- 3