‘Farm Safety First’ message comes into rural classrooms

Farms are identified as the most high-risk workplace in Ireland. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) reported 20 fatalities in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries last year, with 16 of those from farming alone.

Data from the Teagasc National Farm Survey has shown that 4,500 farm accidents happen on farms each year, with 44% of them putting the victim out of work for at least four days. Furthermore, some 80% of these farm accidents required medical treatment.

In a bid to hammer home the farm safety message, Agri Aware has developed a new Transition Year (TY) programme aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness of farm safety practices.

The aim is to equip students who are going onto farms with an understanding of their responsibilities, whether they are visiting or working, and encourage them to think about the importance of farm safety.

The course was designed specifically for TY students and covers a wide range of farm health and safety topics including:

Speaking at the launch of the programme, Shay Galvin, chairman of Agri Aware emphasised TY is an important time for secondary school students.

“They are exploring the world, and in many rural communities, they are working on or around farms.

“Farm Safety First aims to equip these students with the skills to stay safe on farms and to ensure they have the tools to make level-headed decisions.

“Our team has real experience on farms and understands how critical farm safety is and we hope students take away important learnings from the workshops,” says Shay.

Benefits of the programme

Since November, over 46 farm safety workshops have been delivered by Agri Aware education officers across 22 counties with a reach of 1,100 students. Along with this, 5,745 students are currently registered for the programme.

Robert Corroon, education and events officer with Agri Aware says they have had good engagement from students at all workshops.

“A lot of farming students would have found the workshops particularly beneficial; they were able to relate to what we were talking about.

“We were able to go through different scenarios and situations whereby they needed to utilise their knowledge of farm safety or talk about some accidents that have happened in the locality and learn from those,” says Robert.

Although accidents happen every day, not every one of them is reported, but there will always be anecdotal experiences from students and teachers.

“We share those in class and reflect on them to discuss what was the best way to avoid those accidents, or how could they have been avoided.

A lot of farming students would have found the workshops particularly beneficial; they were able to relate to what we were talking about

“Teachers found it very beneficial –we’re seeing an awful lot of teachers who don’t have the resources to teach this in rural schools. They’re learning from these workshops as well, where they’re getting a chance to ask our education officers questions,” he adds.

The main focus is that students benefit and when they are going out onto a farm, they know what hazards to be looking out for and how best to approach situations to ensure they are looking after themselves.

“No workplace is perfect, that’s just the unfortunate reality of life and it’s important students realise that. One farm that they might have been visited yesterday could be different from a farm they’re on tomorrow.

A lot of students would carry out their work experience on local farms or their own farm at home, depending on what way their TY program is specked [marked],” says Robert.

It is also a good fit for the TY curriculum as an additional program and resource.

“They can put it into the calendar for TY students. Whether or not they want to put high emphasis on the program or just dip into the program to give the agricultural students a better foundation in farm safety, it’s entirely up to them,” he says.

Although the competition attached to the programme is finished after Christmas, teachers can still register for the programme as it is flexible. It gives the coordinators a chance to fit it in where they can.

“It’s probably more pertinent, in the springtime if students are carrying out any work experience during calving and lambing – it’s important that they’re aware that farms are very busy places, especially in the lead up into April and May, when silage kicks off,” says Robert.

The programme is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and remains open for registration. See agriaware.ie/schools/secondary-school-programs/farm-safety-first

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