WorkSafeBC and JABC are collaborating to educate high school students about the business of entrepreneurship, and workplace health and safety.
Workers of all ages can be injured on the job, but young and new workers may be more at risk. This partnership will see WorkSafeBC and JABC working together to integrate new health and safety content into the JA Company Program, including a more prominent Vice-President of Health, Safety and Environment role and enhanced content in other company roles to ensure health and safety is seen as intrinsic to work and a shared responsibility.
Delivered over 16 weeks, the JA Company Program inspires high school students to create an enterprise of their own. Students experience how a small enterprise functions by collaborating with peers and business volunteers to design, organize and operate a real business. These new entrepreneurs work within the structure of our Canadian economic system and realize the benefits it provides.
This school year, the program will reach over 1,300 students across B.C.
“Collaboration is the seed of innovation,” says Sheila Biggers, President and CEO of JABC. “And we are excited to be working alongside WorkSafeBC to further educate our students and provide them with practical knowledge about safety in the workplace that will benefit them today, just as much as it will later on in their working lives.”
“Injuries to young workers can result from inexperience, lack of awareness of workplace rights and responsibilities, and reluctance to ask questions and raise health and safety concerns,” says Robin Schooley, Industry Specialist, Young and New Worker Program at WorkSafeBC. “This partnership offers an opportunity to educate and empower young workers as they enter the workforce and encourages students – likely some of B.C.’s future business leaders – to see the benefits of safety to the overall work culture.”
Learn more about JA Company Program.