Young workers should benefit from a new alliance signed Monday between OSHA and SkillsUSA, a national organization serving more than 279,000 high school and college students and professional members enrolled in training programs in technical, skilled and service occupations.

Aimed at fostering safer and healthier workplaces for young workers, the alliance will bring OSHA and SkillsUSA together to provide career and technical educators and their students with materials, guidance and access to training resources that will positively impact the occupational safety and health of young workers.

“The sooner [young workers] learn, the more aware they will be of hazards and ways to avert those hazards. A quality work experience is the result,” said acting OSHA chief Jonathan L. Snare.

OSHA and SkillsUSA will provide expertise in developing information on the recognition and prevention of workplace hazards and on ways of communicating such information, such as through print and electronic media, online forums, electronic assistance tools, and OSHA's and SkillsUSA's Web sites, to educators, employers and young workers.

Alliance members will promote the national dialogue on workplace safety and health by participating in forums, roundtable discussions and stakeholder meetings on young worker safety and health issues to help forge innovative solutions to hazards in the workplace.