Press Release

Penrice in UK top five

Monday, June 30 2008

Students at Penrice Community College are among the top five schools in the UK when it comes to workplace safety.  Over eight hundred students at the college are training for the British Safety Council’s Entry Level Award in Workplace Hazard Awareness.

The college’s Head of Vocational Learning, Penny Powell said, "We're incorporating the BSC’s qualification into our existing provision - ensuring that our students are well prepared for their work experience placements. The BSC Award is a brilliant way to give them official recognition for their hard work and, of course, it will appear in their Record of Achievement." 

She added: "Two hundred and seventy students in Year 11 who have already been on work experience placements are busy filling out their evidence sheets. A similar number of our Year 10 students are currently undergoing Health and Safety training with staff from Cornwall County Council’s Education Business Partnership team and staff from Penrice before going out on two weeks of work experience later this term. Two hundred and seventy students in Year 9 will be starting to train with their Form Tutors in June."

According to the British Safety Council, a young person is seriously injured in a UK workplace every 40 minutes.  In the last decade, 66 under-19s have been killed at work.  The BSC’s qualification is designed to raise young people’s awareness of health and safety hazards in the workplace before they embark on a work experience placement or their first job.

Mrs Powell said, "Most students don’t know much about the health and safety hazards they might encounter in the workplace simply because they’ve never been in employment. That’s why it’s so important for us to prepare them properly. They need to know what warning signs mean, correct procedures, what safety clothing to wear and how to deal with potential hazards."

About the initiative

The British Safety Council is paying for all 14-19 year olds in full-time education in the UK (up to 500,000 every year) to help them gain this new nationally-recognised qualification aimed at raising young people’s awareness of health and safety hazards before they embark on work experience or their first job.

The free BSC qualification is supported by a free workplace hazard awareness course developed by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Since its launch in September, 1,300 secondary schools have registered for the qualification.

The award not only helps keep young people safe at a particularly vulnerable time, but also reinforces the government’s aim to provide personalised learning for every child. 

For the thousands of children who are not going on to university, a qualification that can prove to a potential employer that they have common sense, motivation and a sense of pride in what they do, inevitably will make them more employable.

Brian Nimick, Chief Executive of the BSC said, "The phenomenal uptake of the qualification is proof of the need for such training in our schools and a clear sign of the importance that head teachers place on ensuring the health and safety of their students on work experience."