Introduction to Occupational Health and Safety

Every year, workers in South Africa are injured or made ill by their work, and many of those incidents could have been prevented by simple habits: noticing a hazard, wearing the right protective equipment, following the procedure and reporting a problem before it hurts someone. Employers look for new staff who understand health and safety from their first day. This course explains why health and safety matters, what the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 (the OHS Act) expects of employers and employees, the role of health and safety representatives and committees, the difference between a hazard and a risk, how risks are controlled, how to choose, use and care for personal protective equipment (PPE), how to read safety signs, and how to report incidents, near misses and injuries, including the basics of compensation for injuries at work (COIDA). The course is fully online and self-paced. Each lesson has a short activity in your workbook. You finish with a practical task and a final assessment, and you receive a MetaCo Certificate of Completion that you can add to your CV. This is an awareness course: it does not replace the site-specific induction or accredited safety training that your employer must give you.