In 2013, following the Pike River disaster, the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety stated, “Our vision is that within 10 years New Zealand will be among the best places in the world for people to go to work each
day and come home safe and sound. We believe that this is absolutely possible, but it will require an urgent,
broad-based step-change in approach and a seismic shift in attitude.”
With 9 of those 10 years already passed, the “broad-based step-change approach” has not happened.
New Zealand still has an injury rate twice as high as Australia’s and four times higher than the UK. And this may be
understated. So what’s the story? One issue impacting occupational health and safety (OHS) in New Zealand, is the
minimal coordination between educators, employers, and OHS students/graduates. The New Zealand Institute of Safety
Management (NZISM) is moving to create the required ‘step-change’ to resolve this particular issue.
NZISM is releasing their report: A CONCERTED APPROACH: Aligning New Zealand OHS qualifications and professionalism with our health and safety
expectations.
This report considered the current New Zealand OHS environment through the eyes of employers, educators, and OHS
students/graduates, and made four critical recommendations:That New Zealand OHS tertiary courses should be accredited by an agency – to ensure they are evidence-based and include
current best practice.That the accredited courses provided by educational institutions are actively promoted to employers and students as
being world-class qualifications.That OHS professional membership organisations ensure they have a ‘chartered professional’ (or equivalent) category to
establish a nationwide benchmark for a highly-educated OHS professional. This benchmark should be vigorously promoted to
all employers and students as being the required standard for advanced health and safety advice.That, as the largest OHS professional association in New Zealand representing 2500 health and safety practitioners and
professionals, NZISM should encourage tertiary institutions to offer degree level and above health and safety
qualifications, and actively promote these to NZISM members aspiring to higher achievement levels.
These recommendations will not occur overnight, but NZISM is confident that they are urgently required to support the
systemic change required to improve New Zealand’s occupational health and safety outcomes.
The full report can be found here: A Concerted Approach