Passport to safety in New York: Getting youth trained online

Young workers are vulnerable in the workplace because they lack the knowledge to recognize job hazards and the confidence to speak up about them. They work in low-pay, high turnover jobs where they often receive very limited or even no training on health and safety. Despite efforts to integrate health and safety training into school programs, very few teens enter the workplace with any education on workplace safety or job rights. One possible solution is to provide training and education to young people online, accessible from school or home computers. Following the “Passport to Safety” model developed in Ontario, Canada, the New York State Young Workers Safety and Health Project has developed a pilot online training program, based on the learning objectives and activities of the NIOSH and OSHA-funded Youth @ Work—Talking Safety curriculum. Under the “Passport” model, students learn health and safety content online (or in the classroom), and take a test to validate what they've learned. The presenter will share the group's experience translating a classroom-based, highly participatory curriculum into an online learning program, and preliminary results from pilot testing with over 1000 students in New York.