Free online course offered by WorkSafeBC
WorkSafeBC is offering a new online course to train supervisors on the role they play in providing a safe workplace.
Supervisors, workers, and employers in any industry in British Columbia can take the free online Supervising for Safety course at any time. It provides information and resources on supervision and the key role it plays in providing and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace, according to WorkSafeBC.
“It’s all about getting occupational health and safety resources to the customer in ways that meet their needs,” said Gordon Thorne, WorkSafeBC manager of safety videos and publications, who helped build the course. “Making the course available on its own website and on Facebook increases access by bringing the classroom experience to the participant.”
The program originated with an industry group of labour, business and WorkSafeBC officers concerned with injury and disease prevention. Supervisors in industry may lack a full understanding of their role and responsibilities relating to the safety of their workers, including the requirement to provide information, instruction, training, supervision, verification of knowledge, and correction of workplace hazards, according to WorkSafeBC.
“We built the program because there wasn’t much out there for supervisors,” said Mike Tasker a WorkSafeBC occupational safety officer based in Prince George and one of the program’s originators. “So we put together the course based on our experience as supervisors, and best practices for what works in safety management.”
The course is organized into nine modules and can take seven to eight hours to complete. It allows participants to select the topics they want to explore and proceed at their own pace. It contains over 60 video clips and templates of forms, checklists and other WorkSafeBC safety resources to download.
“A large percentage of injuries within certain sectors of the tourism industry, such as hotels and ski hills, are musculoskeletal injuries,” said Trina Wright, program manager of industry health and safety for go2, the B.C. tourism industry’s HR organization and COR certifying partner. “The course content regarding these injuries can help supervisors identify the causes of injury and show them how to implement programs to decrease the likelihood of MSI injury.”
The course can be accessed at www.supervisingforsafety.com or on Facebook by searching for Supervising for Safety.
