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The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) organisation has largely been successful in regulating and implementing safety standards at work. Organisations that follow the strict measures of risk prevention have a healthy working environment with very little room for violations.

It is also true that when new workers are recruited they need training to understand the importance of risk management and develop work ethos aimed at safety. The number of professionals in field of safety and risk management are few and require continued upgradation.

According to a report published by OSH, education may be the key to success. The report proposed that courses in risk management are made mandatory for all students enrolled in the university. This would ensure that there is no specialisation at all and risk management becomes a part of basic education.

Jukka Takala, Director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), commented that risk prevention has to commence with education at the basic level. She opined that future managers need risk education as a part of their role and the university education can successfully create the right approach. This is an optimistic line of thought as it definitely serves the purpose better.

The report by OSH also looks at the various problems in implementing such a proposal. Firstly, a lack of trained teaching staff is bitter reality. Secondly, universities may be equipped to impart only theoretical aspects of risk management while the subject is largely practical by nature. Most importantly, the course may fall short of funding owing to the demand of other courses.

Keeping all this in mind, the OSH report suggests that integrating safety principles in the daily routines of staff and students may be the first step to achieving some success. Once students get used to a culture of safety and risk management, it will be akin to fish to water when they enter the realms of working environment.

Workplace Law Training & Consulting is equipped to provide professionally accredited training in key areas of workplace law and practice – see IOSH e-learning – for information on their web-based training course accredited by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).