Health and Safety for Apprentices

As an employee, you have the right to feel safe and happy in your working environment and not be exposed to any dangerous situations. Your company has to have health and safety guidelines by law and must make sure that you are given adequate training in them.

They also have the responsibility to remove or fix any hazards in your workplace and give you the means to be safe if you are working off site. When you start your new job as an apprentice make sure you receive health and safety training and beware of any potential dangers.

Health and Safety Training

As part of the training that you receive as an apprentice you should be given health and safety training. The content and amount of this will vary depending on your job role. In some environments, such as factories or building sites, there will be more dangerous hazards than in places such as offices.

Your health and safety training should be comprehensive and give you a clear understanding of the dangers, processes in place to protect you and what you can do to keep yourself safe.

Health and Safety Law

There are health and safety laws in place to protect employees against harm. These laws require your employer to do a number of things. They need to do a full risk assessment of the premises to identify any potential hazards and then work out how to prevent them. This information must be written up and available to staff as well as training being given so that they understand it fully.

Report Any Problems

If you have not received any formal health and safety training then talk to your manager about it as it is important that you made aware of any potential dangers. If you spot anything that you think may result in a hazard then report it to the relevant health and safety officer. It is the responsibility of every member of staff to make sure that the workplace is a safe environment.

Stay Safe

Following your health and safety training you need to take onboard the information that you are given and protect yourself suitably. Never flout health and safety regulations however trivial they may seem. Your safety is much more important than looking cool or making life a bit easier. You are within your rights to refuse to do something if you think it compromises your health and safety so you need to look out for yourself.

As an apprentice you receive a lot of training in different aspects of the job. Make sure that as part of the programme you receive health and safety training. Your company is required by health and safety law to minimise the hazards in your workplace and tell you about how to protect yourself, even when you are working off site.

If they don’t, then ask about it so you are clear what dangers to avoid. If you see any dangers then report them and make sure you look after yourself, abiding by the health and safety rules – they are there for a reason.