The aim of Occupational Safety and Risk Control in Construction and Metal Industry Sectors Project is to contribute vocational education with the aspect of occupational health and safety. Importance of occupational health and safety is increasing both in Europe and Turkey. In terms of awareness, however, vocational education institutions are not at the desired level in Turkey.. Occupational Safety and Risk Control in Construction and Metal Industry Sectors project shall aim to increase the awareness of occupational health and safety among the students of vocational schools, employees and employers and to increase the implementation capacity of EU Acquis in Turkey. Occupational Safety and Risk Control in Construction and Metal Industry Sectors project is based on the motto “Eliminate, if not possible then Minimize, Control”. A vocational education module shall be developed for the metal sector students in order to increase their knowledge and awareness about occupational health and safety. Training skilled labor is one of the essential necessities of such global economy where knowledge and information technology is gaining more and more importance. Investing in labor force is the defining factor to enhance international competitiveness. Another aim of Occupational Safety and Risk Control in Construction and Metal Industry Sectors project is conscious-raising of students about occupation health and safety. Increased awareness among students shall lead development in our economy. A sectorial occupational education module shall be also prepared to address the problems of construction workers and employers. The general indifference to occupational health and safety subject is also present in construction sector. In this context, there shall be contribution to occupational education with the aspect of occupational health and safety. Another instrument to increase occupational health and safety awareness shall be conducted through formal and non-formal education. A web portal shall be developed in order to facilitate vocational education. The web platform allows building easy to use and cost-free online tools that can help employees to put in place a step by step occupational health and safety process starting with the identification and evaluation of workplace risks, through to the decision making and implementation of preventative actions. A mobile version shall also be added to the system so that users could access the portal via smartphones which could also increase the utility to maximum level. Moreover, best practices handbook shall be prepared and thanks to this experiences and contribution to capacity development of workers, employers and students shall be enhanced. In addition, Glossary on Risk Terminology shall be prepared so that the students of metal sector, employers and workers in construction sector could clearly apprehend the concepts and employ the knowledge in practice about occupational health and safety.Occupational accidents cost great deal for national economy as well as work place. There are costs such as hospital and rehabilitation centers which would be a burden to rest of the society. Occupational accidents functions to diminish development and national welfare. Lost working hours due to occupational accident is decreasing directly the added value in our national economy. This situation causes great deal of economic losses at national level. Therefore, “preventing is less expensive and more humane” motto should prevail. The aimed project shall also be helpful to minimize the labor and output loss. The final international conference will be organized in 22th project month. Occupational Safety and Risk Control in Construction and Metal Industry Sectors project consortium consists of 5 partners of various types: OSTIM MESLEKI VE TEKNIK ANADOLU LISESI Ankara, Turkey ), TECHNCAL UNIVERSITY OF KOSICE (Slovakia), CIAPE - CENTRO ITALIANO PER L'APPRENDIMENTO PERMANENTE (Italy), Provest Consulting (Ankara,Turkey), EUROPEAN CENTER FOR QUALITY OOD (Bulgaria).
One of the main problems of the labor market is occupational health and safety (OHS). According to data from the International Labor Organization (ILO), there have been 340 million work accidents recently and 2 million people have lost their lives due to these accidents all over the world. (ILO 2013). In addition to increasing the costs of workers and employers, occupational accidents bring high costs to the national economy. The social security system must cover the entire community's hospital costs and rehabilitation center costs. Professional accidents lead to a decrease in national development and welfare. The decrease in working days due to work accidents directly reduces the added value created in the country. This situation causes great losses in the country's economy. For this reason, it is essential to act with the slogan ”prevention is cheaper and more humanistic than paying. The Occupational Safety and Risk Control project in the Construction and Metal Industry Sectors will reduce labor and production losses. According to the Social Security Insurance statistics (2014), the disability period was determined as 2.065.962 days and the mortality rate due to 221.366 occupational accidents was 1.626. The total number of permanent disabilities is 42.857. Compared with some other countries, according to information received from Turkey Statistics Institution, work accidents in Turkey are critical situations.(Canada 0.81%, USA 0.83%, Japan 0.89%, Germany 1.5%, Poland 2). , 6%, North Korea 2.8%, Turkey 3.0%). When the data of occupational accidents are analyzed by sectors, it is seen that the most common occupational accidents occurred in the metal industry with 14.3 percent and in construction sectors with 14 percent, respectively. The importance of OHS has been growing both in Turkey and Europe. OHS is described in the status of Turkey in the EU progress report released in 2015. Turkey must implement more effective OSH content (EU progress report 2015). Turkey in the EU criteria (1989/391 / EEC) prepared in accordance with the main embodiment, is Law No. 6331. The EU's framework guidelines include the improvement of OHS in workplaces and the prevention of employees and risks. 6571 (C167 - Construction and Safety Contract - according to ILO) has recently been approved to prevent construction accidents. Many steps are being taken with developments in OHS, including technological infrastructure and hardware especially in Turkey. Many successes have been achieved by abandoning the education system with old technologies and many steps have been taken to improve both formal and non-formal education. However, this success has not been achieved in OSH in other fields yet . In this context, the Occupational Safety and Risk Control Project in the Construction and Metal Industry Sectors was implemented in order to increase the awareness of the Vocational High School students who are the main labor force of the sector and currently the employees and employers in the sector. The project is designed with a motto of identify, remove, reduce and control. The metal industry has the highest work accident rates. This sector is classified in heavy and dangerous business classification. All employees in this sector should be selected from vocational training. However, as in all fields of vocational education, it also provides a basic level of OHS training in the field of metal. The high rate of occupational accidents in the sector indicates that the training provided is not sufficient. In this project, we focused on the quality training module which is in line with the requirements of the sector for the solution of OHS training problem. A vocational training module has been developed in order to increase the awareness and knowledge of the students studying in the metal field of vocational high schools.The project will raise the awareness of vocational high school students. As a result of success among students, it will contribute to the development of the partner countries' economy. The training module has also been developed for construction sector employees and employers. In this context, this project directly contributed to the vocational education of workers in metal and construction sectors. The project has aimed to raise awareness on OHS in non-formal education as well as formal education. The web portal developed in the project facilitated access to vocational training. The web platform has helped to identify and evaluate workplace risks and to identify and implement preventive actions, and to help employees' professional careers and OHS awareness processes. The web portal is made easy to use and free online tools have been created for the target audience. The mobile version of the web portal has provided easy access to users and increased the diversity of educational environments. There are more COMMENTS in the attachement.....