Materials For Teachers, Youth Employment Programs, and Community Volunteers

As an educator, you have the opportunity to raise awareness about young worker health and safety.

This page contains teaching and educational resources available for you to use to teach about young worker issues as well as rights and responsibilities of young workers on the job.

Your CTE Safety Program: Safe Students, Safe Workers  (2019)

New tools for Career Technical Education (CTE) administrators and instructors on key program elements for safe CTE programs. Includes action-oriented guide for administrators and instructors in general industry and construction CTE Programs, links to resources, and assessments to identify where your program is stronger and where it needs more attention and lesson plans and materials to teach health and safety problem-solving and communication skills.

All Industry CTE

  • Problem Solving for Safety: Building Critical Thinking and Communication Skills.
  • All Industry Guide. Your CTE Safety Program: Safe Students, Safe Workers
  • “20 Questions” Handouts for Administrators and Instructors in CTE programs
  • More Scenarios for Safety Bull’s Eye Activity (excerpts from the NIOSH Youth@Work— Talking Safety curriculum and PowerPoint)

Construction CTE

Youth @ Work: Talking Safety Curriculum (2017)

Includes instructor’s notes and training materials for teaching youth, including those with developmental and learning disabilities, basic job health and safety knowledge and skills. The 3 to 5- hour curriculum covers how to recognize and reduce hazards in the workplace, employees’ rights and responsibilities, emergency preparedness, and how to speak up about workplace concerns in an effective manner.

A Safety and Health Curriculum for Workers with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2016)

The curriculum is intended for supported employment agencies, community vocational rehabilitation programs, high-school transition programs, and other organizations and companies that place in jobs or hire workers with disabilities. The curriculum can help teach students or consumers/employees the foundational job safety and health skills that all workers need. The curriculum uses highly interactive and fun learning activities to teach workplace safety and health skills, which are general, transferable, and can apply across all jobs and industries.

Safe Jobs—Work Safe! A Curriculum for Continuation School Students and Teachers (2015)

The curriculum is designed to support the student in an independent setting. It can be implemented within the requirements of English Language Arts, Health, Career/Technical, or Life Skills to ensure that information about teen worker health and safety is delivered to our students, many of whom work, or are actively seeking employment. We have included alignment with two sets of standards (pp. 2 and 3 below) – the Common Core English Language Arts Standards, and the Core Competencies established by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for a Safe, Skilled, Ready Workforce.

Orienting Worksite Supervisors About Teen Health and Safety Tool (2014)

Designed for job placement professionals to work with worksite supervisors to ensure that all young workers are working in a safe and healthful environment.

Teens Working in Agriculture Curriculum (2010)

An ESL curriculum for high school students
Developed by UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program.

This curriculum covers basic agricultural health and safety concepts designed to be incorporated into high school intermediate level ESL classes in rural communities. Includes a video, “Teens Working in Agriculture.”

OSHA’s 11 Curriculum (2009)

An OSHA 10-hour curriculum for Young Workers

This curriculum, developed by the University of Washington’s Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center, LOHP, and the Education Development Center, contains lesson plans for teaching a version of the OSHA 10-hour General Industry training course (2009 OSHA requirements) appropriate for young workers, especially high school-aged students enrolled in career & technical education, skills centers, academies, or other school-based programs. In order to be eligible for an OSHA-10 card, students would still need to receive the training from an OSHA-approved instructor; content and time spent on specific topics would need to meet current OSHA requirements. Activities have been drawn from a variety of other curricula, acknowledged in the OSHA’s 11 curriculum.

Teens Speak Out for Safety on the Job Curriculum (2008)

Lessons from the Young Worker Leadership Academy

Since 2005, over 150 enthusiastic young people from throughout California have attended one of our Young Worker Leadership Academies (YWLAs) on workplace health and safety. The YWLA is a fun, activity-packed, all-expense-paid leadership training for teens. It prepares teams of teens to go back to their communities and create an education, policy, or media project that promotes workplace safety for young people. Because the YWLA can serve as a model for similar efforts, we have prepared this booklet, in partnership with UCLA’s Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH), to explain how the YWLA works. It describes, step by step, how we plan and carry out the YWLA and what lessons we have learned.

For more information on the Young Worker Leadership Academies, click here.

Teens, Work, and Safety Curriculum (1998)

A Curriculum for High School Students

Designed by and for teachers, this interactive curriculum can be used in academic high school classes as well as in vocational and work experience programs. Each 3 to 5-hour teaching unit contains learning objectives, lesson plans, detailed teacher’s instructions, masters for overheads, and student handouts. Units cover both specific job hazards and labor laws.

Additional Teaching Activities

  • 2019 Safe Jobs 4 Youth Kahoot! Quiz (Factsheet) (ANSWER KEY)
  • 2018 Sexual Harassment at Work (Kahoot! Quiz) (Answer Key) (Factsheet)
  • 2017 Safe Jobs 4 Youth Activities Guide (PDF) (PPT) (Webinar Recording)
  • 2016 “Are You a Working Teen Game Show Activity”(PDF) (PPT)
  • 2015 “Lost Youth” (PDF)
  • 2014 “Workplace Violence Prevention” Curriculum (PDF)
  • 2013 “Safe Work/Work Safe” (PPT)
  • 2012 “Teens Take on Sexual Harassment” (PDF)
  • 2011 “Triangle Tragedy” (PDF) (PPT) **Labor History Activity!
  • 2010 “Heat Safety: It’s Part of the Job (PDF)
  • 2009 “Emergencies at Work” (PDF)
  • 2008 “Why Does Workplace Health and Safety Matter?” (PDF)
  • 2007 “Making the Job Safer” (PDF)
  • 2006 “Identifying Hazards and Solutions” (PDF)
  • 2005 “There Ought to Be a Law!” (PDF) **Labor History Activity!
  • 2004 “Know Your Rights” – Bingo (PDF)
  • 2003 “Identifying & Controlling Workplace Hazards” (PDF)
  • 2002 “Problem Solving for Health and Safety” (PDF)
  • 2001 “Taking Action for Health and Safety” (PDF)
  • 2001“Legal Rights” (PDF)

Factsheets

For additional materials

For additional materials, visit External Links and Resources.