Investing in health and safety training is key to preventing incidents, boosting efficiency and fostering a positive health and safety culture. Health and safety training empowers employees to identify potential hazards in the workplace, understand safety procedures, and take necessary precautions, ultimately reduce the risk of incidents and injuries, improving employee morale, and ensuring compliance with legal regulations; essentially creating a safer work environment for everyone involved.

CSSHSA team in collaboration with our Board, Advisory Panel, and Community of Practice have identified a number of priority courses to develop for the Social Services sector. We have also been listening to the various organizations as part of our engagement and presentations to the sector.

We are happy to report that we are well underway with our efforts. We are now at the stage of meaningful consultation with our members to ensure they reflect all lens’ of the sector (Indigenous lens, accessibility, etc.). We will be testing our Learning Management System (LMS) shortly, we are calling it the Learning Centre. The testing will be performed with our Advisory Panel, our Community of Practice, and we will be reaching out to various CSS organizations to ensure we consult in a meaningful way with our membership. We will be featuring our first 4 draft e-learning courses developed specifically for our sector:

1. Trauma Informed Practice
2. Violence Risk Assessment
3. WHMIS
4. Workplace Inspections

Later in the spring, we will also be testing, 4 additional e-learning courses: Musculoskeletal Injury (MSI) Awareness and Prevention, OHS for Leaders, Incident Investigations and Respectful Workplace for Workers. We will also commence the development of violence prevention training in collaboration with SWITHC BC.

We are planning to open course registration to our member organizations in May. We are looking forward to supporting our sector with high quality education and training and we are excited about this upcoming milestone with our team. We are also grateful for all the support of our various partners, including the employer organizations and unions that have been actively supporting our work for many years. We are also thankful for the support of the health authorities, the Federation of Social Services, WorkSafeBC and the BC Government.