Raising Awareness of Farm Safety

 

Agriculture students took part in Health & Safety training hosted by Yellow Wellies Farm Safety Foundation last Thursday to help raise awareness about the dangers when working on a farm amongst students across all levels of study.

After starting the half-day session with an introduction and being presented with some key information about health and safety in one of our countries most hazardous industries, students are given four different scenarios and have to work to assess the scene of the accident. They were given minutes to work out what has happened at each scene and decide upon what immediate action they should take, contemplate first aid implications and explore what measures should be taken to prevent the accident happening again. 

The four accident scenarios that the students took part in were:

 

1. Machinery/ PTO related accident
2. Working at height (falling from a ladder)
3. Livestock (crushing injury from working in a pen with cattle)
4. Workplace transport (ATV’s/ Quadbikes)

With 27 farm workers losing their lives in the workplace in 2016/2017 according to the HSE Fatal Injuries in Agriculture report, Plumpton College are grateful to be able to offer this training to our students and get them to be aware and understand the importance of health and safety in the work place.

Yellow Wellies, Farm Safety Foundation was established by the NFU Mutual in 2014 as an independent charity to help young farmers challenge their behaviours and change their attitude to farm safety. Over the past 3 years, the Farm Safety Foundation have been developing the half day introduction to Farm Safety training course which is being delivered at agricultural colleges throughout the UK to educate young farmers become industry ready.

All students involved that complete the training and test receive a LANTRA qualification.

To find out more about the Health & Safety training sessions delivered by Yellow Wellies and the charity, visit their website.