Posted By Ken Urquhart
Robert:
I dont want the following comments and suggestions to seem patronising but you did say that this was the fist time that you have done such a presentation and that you only have a short time to put it together, so I offer the following and although slightly lengthy I hope that you will get something useful out of the notes. The suggetions offered have over the years worked for me.
Firstly I hope that there has been dialogue between your Company/Organisation and the eduction authority and that your Company and it's Safety and Health arrangements have been reviewed and agreed as acceptable for the young people to come to your businesses in the first place.
Secondly have your Insurers been advised that you are having Work Experience Trainees.
Thirdly there is great value to be had from these periods of sharing and caring but: _
Have the personnel in your Organisation been made aware that you are having these Young People join the company for a week?
Have your personnel been prepared?
Are your personnel in a frame of mind that will welcome and encourage these Young People - sadly and all too often Senior Managemnt agree to take part in YP placement but neglect to prepare the organisation to deal with it with the result that you and the Young People loose out and the potential for boredom, lack of interest or motovation from the YP's and the risk of mishap is increased.
So check out that the People that the YP's are to be allocated/appointed to have some sort of Mentor Preparation and that thy will take on board the responsibility of helping to influence and develop a Young persons mind rather than alienate them by leaving them in the corner because they believe that it is quicker for them to do the job/task themselves than it is to explain it to and take a YP through the job/task portion by portion and at the same time explaing simply why it is done that way.
It would be useful for the end session of your Induction to have the Mentors come to the presentation area to be introduced and then ask them to invite the YP allocated to them to introduce themselves to the mentor and then for the Mentor to escort the YP to there specific Work Location.
(It would also be sensible and helpful for the Mentor to have advance details, name, age, sex and brief background of the individual that they are going to have allocated to them for the week's WE)
In starting your Induction you need to welcome the YP's and make them feel comfortable.
Introduce yourself, give a very brief outline of why you are doing this and what your role,responsibility, especially the Safety etc role is in the Organisation.
Then invite each of the YP's to briefly stand up and introduce themselves so that you all get to know a bit about each other.
Pre - prepared name badges would be useful, you could then issue the name badge to the indvividual once they have introduced themselves.
What you want is WHO they are,Name
What School do they attend.
What are there interests - Music/Sport/Fashion/Lifestyle,etc.,
What are there ambitions or what do they think that they might like to do in life.
If some are reluctant, encourage them, ask open questions and get some more information out of them, this will help to relax them and help them feel more part of the group.
Try not to talk at them - rather encourage them to join in, not easy I know but try to invite comment or contribution as you take them through the topics in your presentation.
Tell them briefly what your Company/Business/Organisation does - Makes - or describe the services that it provides.
Tell them briefly about the importance of HS&W and the related issues of Fire, Emergency, Security, Environment etc etc.
Refer them to your company/business experience.(Accidents, Incidents, any Safety Awards that the Busines/Organisation has had or has achieved etc.,)
Make sure that they understand simply, that sadly people do get Killed, injured and suffer health damage at work and from work processes and activities.
To further encourage intereest from your YP's ask them if any of them have any personal experience of accident/incident or ill health effects on them or there family.
Have any of them suffered accidents - Vehicle/Road traffic incidnts or injury for instance or a cycling accident.
Have any suffered from Home accident - Kitchens - Burns/Scalds/Cuts from sharp knives etc.
Have any suffered from Home incidents in the garage or the garden or in DIY type scenarios or whilst helping parents etc.,
Have any of them any family mmber who has had some such involvement.
The point of all this is not to get there full life histories but to try to involve them, to help them to realise from there own experiences that they are relating to you that similar things can and do happen every day in the work environment, (Reassure here -not necessarily everyday in your Organisation but in general in business/commerce/industry around the country).
Once you have one or two examples involve the whole group by asking them simple open questions to draw them to offer a comment or a view on a particular part of the circumstances of one of the related incidents.
"For instance you could pick one of the group who has been quiet and invite them to comment as to whether or not they can suggest what an incident victim might have done to prevent there cut injury or a burn or a scald or being knocked down etc etc.
You don't need to offer comment or judgement, all you are trying to do is to involve the YP's and get them thinking laterally and becoming involved.
Be careful not to be drawn by flipant contributions but equally try not to be totally dismissive, thank the individual for there contribution and suggest that the group will consider that view or opinion as the induction develops.
You could, as they are presumably with you for at least a week give the YP's some Web site references such as the HSE web sites, RoSPA's web site etc and suggest that they do some simple home research - they all surely must have access to home computers.
Then later in there Weeks Work Experience try to catch up with each YP individually and have a short informal chat with them: How are they getting on?
Are they comfortable with what they are doing?
Is there Mentor guiding them?
Is there anything that they want to know more about?
Is there anything that they are worried about in terms of the work area or the work task or process?
Ask them to tell you of anything that they have seen that they believe to be dangerous or stupid and invite them to suggest what they think should be done about it. (Young people given encouragement will open up and be constructively communicative if they are also given credibility for there views - Remember some of these Young People could become tomorrows Captains of industry or commerce or whatever)
Also ask them for feedback from/about there Safety WEB search.
As well as telling the Young People about the Fire and the First Aid and the Emergency procedures etc:
Walk them around the premises or work area.
Seek out the Fire/Emrgency/First Aid notices - Here you can develop guidance on the Safety Signs legislation by referring to the sign colours/symbols/shape and draw out there understanding of signage then advise them of the correct aspects etc.
As you go around get them to point out Fire points, Alarm call points, Fire exit doors etc to you, don't just take them around pointing things out to them.
Remember the aim is involvement and contibution from "them".
The old addage:
Tell me and I will hear;
Show me and I will see;
Let me DO and I will remenber;
Why not also go out some Fire/Emergency Exit final exit doors and see where they take you and the group to.
This will help them get orientated with the premises/workplace - or in the case where the inducted YP will go to another Company/Organisation site: Make sure that they understand that there location will be different and that they will need to be taken through the evacuation process for there location with there Mentor..
Such exercises also highlight any deficiencies in your organisations precautions and systems - like blocked or obstructed Escape routes, or vehicles parked up gainst the outside of final Emergency Exit doors such that you cannot open them and get out, or highlights missing Extinguishers or broken Alarm call Points or whatever etc tc.
Ensure of course that the Young People hear and see you report/refer the problem to whoever is the responsible person to have immediate remedial/corrective action taken.
For other guidance look at the IOSH web site.
Go to Site map and click, this will take you to Technical Information.
Scroll down this page till you see a sub heading "position Statements" and in this group you will find an IOSH document entitled "Preparing Young People for a Safer Working Environment" (I think that I have quoted that reasonably correctly) and the publication is downloadable.
Also go to the HSE web pages as there is some very useful information and a short video presentation that can play on your computer about Young People and there Safety in the Workplace.
Hopefully in your Induction process you will be supported by a Personnel or HR function who will contribute things about Hours of work, reporting if the YP's are absent due to sicknes - also informing the school, telling the YP's about Welfare arrangemnts,what to do if they do have a workplace injury and how to report it, get detils of/about any company Transport to from the wokplace etc etc.
It would also be great if one of your really Senior Managers/Directors would support you:-
All it needs is 2 minutes and the individual to introduce themslves, welcome the YP's, reinforce that it is expected that they, the YP's both enjoy and learn from the placement;
That knowing there views and having there feedback is important to the Senior Management as well as to the organsiation (Shows committment to policy etc and has been "publicly declared")
Also sugget that you have a joint close out/feedback meeting at the end of the Placement period with all the YP's the Bosses, HR and the Mentors, yourself, and all share in the outcome of the week, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly on both sides.
I will separately e-mail you some Power Point Sample slides from various presentations that I have prepared and presented. These are for ideas only.
Whilst you are welcome to use the concepts and the ideas illustrated in the slides and the notes that accompany them, you must remember that they relate to specific Comapnies/Businesses and are not necessarly represntative of your Company/Business/Organisation and how it is structured and operates.
They hopefully though will give you some ideas.
Good luck and have a good and safe Young Peoples Work Experience placement week.
Regards.
ken Urquhart