Students learn how to play it safe at work

A new project aimed at teenagers is set to address dangers in the workplace ? a topic which until now hasn't been part of their education

Amid all the discussion of preparing young people for the world, one literally vital element has been lacking: awareness of risk. Statistics show that people under the age of 24 are most likely to be seriously injured in the workplace. According to 2001 figures, this group suffered seven deaths, 2,030 major injuries and 8,306 injuries resulting in the worker being absent for more than three days. And yet, at a time when there is growing emphasis on getting young people into the workplace for experience and vocational training, there has been little focus on educating teenagers in this area. It is a gap that a project involving teachers, business, safety organisations and others is seeking to address.

The "BSafe" risk management drama that was launched last autumn in 10 pilot schools uses a hard-hitting approach that draws on teenagers' language to alert Year 10 pupils to the dangers in the workplace and to promote safe behaviour at work.

The programme, which features a theatre production by the acclaimed training group CragRats, has been developed under the auspices of Heads, Teachers and Industry (HTI), an education charity that aims to improve leadership and management skills in schools. Though it also carries out research into leadership issues affecting schools and provides training in this area, its core activity is organising secondments of senior teachers into businesses, the public sector and charities.

The idea, explains chief executive Anne Evans, is that teachers take up an interim management role within the host organisation rather than spending a couple of days watching. The scheme, which has been running since 1986, focuses on heads, deputy heads and heads of department and secondments typically last for a term, although they can run for up to a year.

It was while on one of these secondments with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that Bron Freake began developing the ideas that led to the BSafe project. Bunzl, an international company involved in the distribution and manufacture of plastic and paper-based products and HTI supporter, became involved when it, like the HSE, grew concerned about young people's apparent nonchalance regarding risk.

Arnold Wagner, the company's personnel director, says: "Young people need to understand that uninformed risk-taking can have disastrous consequences. We share the concerns of other businesses that many young people are inadequately prepared for dealing with risk in the workplace."

Bunzl's readiness to become involved in a project that is making risk education part of the curriculum is evidence of what Anne Evans sees as "a fabulous demonstration of corporate social responsibility". She says that, while the company's support and commitment have helped make the BSafe programme possible, the involvement of teachers has made it relevant and potentially more effective than the standard literature.

But these insights aren't the only things of value that teachers can bring to their secondments. "Teachers have many transferable skills that they don't realise they have," says Evans. "They have communication skills, selling skills and they are amazing multi-taskers." In return, teachers pick up their own work experience, which can help them in advising pupils on career choices and which also improves their own employability.

With just 400 secondments since the programme began 17 years ago, Evans acknowledges that it has not involved huge numbers of people. But she argues that for those who have gone through it, it is a life-changing experience that offers a real in-depth opportunity to learn about how other organisations do things.

Evans points out that the very nature of the scheme means that taking part requires significant commitment both from the schools (which are, however, provided with funds to provide cover for the absent teacher) and from the businesses and other organisations that take on the secondees.

Evans says that in an ideal world every one of the 28,000 schools in England and Wales would have a teacher on secondment, but that would require 28,000 host organisations. Over the years, HTI has attracted support from the likes of the HSBC banking group, Severn Trent Water, BT, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Defence, as well as those involved in BSafe. But as a charity with limited marketing clout, it remains little known – which is unfair, given its role in showing that business and schools really can work together in a mutually beneficial manner.