Posted By Joe McNicholas As a company we will have an influx of 16-17 year olds in September. As the company Safety Trainer I offered to carry out safety training for them before releasing them into the actual work environment - This offer was accepted. Me and my big mouth! Has anybody any experience in teaching/ training within this age range who would be willing to share experiences? I am looking to find the best level to pitch the course at (4-6 hours), should I talk about Eminem, Atomic Kitten etc? Should I talk about horror stories concerning accidents/ fatalities involving 16-17 year olds? What is the best way to get the point across. Thanks in anticipation. Joe McNicholas

Posted By Ken Taylor 4-6 hours is too long. Try 1 or 2 hour sessions. Treat them like adults. Use videos. They are usually less 'boring'.

Posted By Zyggy Turek I used to have a H&S slot in an apprentice training course and the previous responses give sound advice. I would suggest that 2 hours in one go is your maximum time and yes, I did use "horror stories" mainly to do with horseplay, but they have to be pertinent to the work activity, i.e. no point in talking about the dangers of compressed air if they are office based & will never come into contact with it. I also used gory photographs to make certain points, but do admit to changing the story to suit the situation & a bit of poetic licence. We also carried out "hazard spotting" exercises so that they could actually get up from their chairs & look critically at their work surroundings. This seemed to go down particularly well & I even learnt a thing or two! PS. I always thought that "eminem" were chocolate covered sweets sold at extortionally high prices at multi-screen cinemas!

Posted By Ken Urquhart Joe. Firstly, have these young people been inducted into the organisation? Is there an Induction process? If there is an Induction does it include Safety etc? Your Safety training session could be part of the Induction process. As other respondents have said dont talk down to them or at them. Design your session and 2 hours maximum for the firt session if you want to retain their enthusiasm, more as a Workshop. Involve them, ask them what they are expecting from their workplace and the workpractices. Ask them what they expcet will happen if there were an accident in the workplace, if someone was injured. Get them to tell you where,how and what type of help can be obtained, what the follow up and aftermath of the accident will involve. Here you can use Graphics, national statistics, company ststistics, Gory photographs, Film or Video etc. In terms of Visual Aids anything that reflects the actual experiences and involvement of your Organisation and its people will be more meaningful than material depicting broad generalities form Industry and commerce. As others have said you will find that the young pople know far more than we might give them credit for and they will have in many cases strong views. Ask them if any of them have accident experiences, (Accidents of any sort, Dometic, RTA, Personal injury - Sport,Horseplay etc) and build on their experiences linking to the Industrial/commercial arena that they are about to enter. Another useful tool as has also been referred to is to involve the group in Role Play. Create as part of the session a Safety Inspection Check list related to there work areas or work practices and walk the area and view the process with them, then review the observations and findings and develop their comments into lerning outcomes. You can do simple checks of The Fire and Emergency Procedure in this way with them and also of the provision of First Aid facilities/resources/reporting procedures. Again as some of the other contributors have commented, you may find that you will yourslf learn from the experience and you may well find it challenging and stimulating, you might have to Think on your feet a bit. Have a successful session and lets hope this is the start of a common regular practice within your organisation for future intakes of new young people. Perhaps in future sessions you could think of bringing back one or two of the previous intake group inductee/trainees to involve them in leading parts of the sessions. Hope some of this is of interest. Regards. Ken